Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  All cares and worries temporarily forgotten, Jess and little Louise lost themselves in the simple pleasures of caring for the grand Highrock garden, its finicky herbs in need of constant tending, for all that most of the staff jokingly referred to it as being under Jess’s green thumb.

  Jess smiled at the antics of her ebony cat whose glossy coat shimmered in the sunlight as he darted madly through the garden. Stalking some terrified mouse, Jess had no doubt, though for some odd reason he never actually killed the poor things, playfully batting them around before letting them go.

  All of her well-nurtured plants blossomed, Jess was happy to find, well attentive as she was to the needs of the hungry herbs demanding moist soil and cooling shade to truly bloom to their fullest. Automatically, she ticked off in her mind the healing properties of all the herbs she was gathering for the Healers Wing that day, instructing Louise as they worked.

  Louise smiled, with quick responses for all of Jess's gentle questions. “The peppermint leaves help to soothe a bilious belly, whether it be from sickness, the sea, or a growing baby. The elderberries help treat colds and lung sickness, and the hawthorn fruits are tasty and can be used in Mother's extracts to strengthen the heart, right Jessie?”

  Jess nodded. “That is correct, Louise. And hawthorn leaves make a fine tea. But you must spit out the seeds if you eat the fruit, as they are not good for you, just as we strain them out when we make hawthorn jam.”

  Louise nodded enthusiastically. “I love Mother's fruit preserves. They are all so tart and sweet, and so delicious on morning bread!”

  “Your mother does make wonderful preserves,” Jess agreed, impressed by her little helper as Louise continued to recite the medicinal merits of the herbs they had plucked that day with near rote perfection. Feeling strangely at peace, Jess made her way back to the entrance of the garden, receiving a friendly wave from Lady Vaila as Louise raced into her mother's arms. Jess stroked the branches of the nearby bushes in silent thanks, and fancied she could feel the wind tickling their leaves in a rustling gesture of farewell.

  “Guess what, Mother? Jessie was teaching me about herbs today!”

  Vaila laughed indulgently, kissing her daughter’s brow. “Wonderful news, my daughter. We could hardly ask for a better teacher than our dear Jessie, now could we?”

  Her daughter solemnly shook her head, causing Vaila and Jess to smile in unison, for all that the head herbalist's gentle gaze sometimes left Jess feeling like a favored specimen in need of a good pruning.

  “Good day to you, my dear Jessica. It is kind of you to allow my Louise to accompany you on your harvests. I know she loves learning from you.” She smiled warmly at Jess, dutifully admiring her small harvest of perfectly clipped and plucked herbs, each gathered at the absolute peak of potency. “You truly have a way with our garden, dear Jess. I swear, our plants have never been happier or healthier since you’ve begun your ministrations here, and our healers swear their extracts and tinctures have never been as potent as they are now. One day I do hope you’ll share your secret with me.” Vaila chuckled lightly, but Jess knew she spoke in deadly earnest.

  Jess looked down somewhat shyly and shrugged her shoulders. “The plants just need to be nurtured, Lady Vaila. Sometimes they are hungry for the right soils. More loam, more compost, needing it a bit dryer, or a bit more moisture by the roots. When you get a feel for what the plant wants, and it senses your ministrations, then it will be happy to blossom to its full potential for you.”

  Louise nodded solemnly. “Jessie talks to the plants, Mother, and they tell her what they need.”

  Jess blushed at this. “I don’t know if I’d precisely put it that way.”

  Vaila simply chuckled. “A wonderful tale, my daughter. And do the plants talk back to her?”

  Louise nodded, earning a surprised gaze from her mother. “But only Jess can hear them.” Vaila’s quiet alarm transformed at once into an indulgent smile.

  “Well, that’s all right then. We’ll leave talking to plants to our dear Jessie. It is for you and I to study them the other way.”

  Louise sighed, her beautiful features looking suddenly crestfallen. “You mean we have to read about them again?”

  Her mother nodded solemnly. “Indeed we do, my dear. For unless we are blessed with the gift of speaking to our charges, it is the only way that we can learn how best to care for them, and it is the only way we can preserve our knowledge for the next generation. Now how about you go back to our quarters, and I shall let you pick out the books on plant lore that we will practice reading together?”

  Louise smiled and nodded, immediately looking on the bright side of things. “Yes, Mother. Can we read in the garden? I’ll be right back!”

  Dark brown hair framing a face far younger than her years, Vaila gazed fondly after her daughter for a few moments before turning to peer at a suddenly self-conscious Jess. “Few people can sense so acutely the needs of plant life quite so well as you, dearest Jessica. The college would be well served, should one with your talents choose to dedicate herself fully to the herbalist's tradition."

  Hauntingly beautiful eyes sparkling like dewdrops pinned Jess where she stood. "And dare I say it, Jessica, I think you would be far happier nurturing Spring's gentle blossoms than Autumn's deadly harvest."

  Heart racing, Jess shuddered at those words, stumbling back.

  The gentle herbalist seemed at that moment more a force of nature than the beautiful woman who took such care of their rooftop sanctuary.

  Jess shuddered and looked away, breathless, feeling a gentle hand squeeze her own.

  "I startled you, Jess. I'm sorry."

  Jess swallowed, and laughed the awkward moment away, wondering what had given her such a fright. Vailia was the gentlest, sweetest professor working at the college, one who didn't begrudge Jess her difficulties with reading tomes and texts, happy to let her nurture Vaila's prized garden in her own way, the fruits of Jess's labors now plain for all to see, for all that few dared the rooftop garden.

  Of course, a degree in herbalism would please her parents to no end.

  Her father would be all too happy to have his nicely thought out plan for her destiny backed by the college’s assessment, a wonderful pretext to formally place the apple groves and gardens under her care the moment she returned home. Trapped in a vice of expectation, the ever-growing obligations and demands of family and duty would only increase their hold upon her once she took that first step down her expected life path, and before long all hopes of living fierce and free would be relegated to the wildest of dreams.

  The very thought made Jess suddenly nauseous, her feelings so overt that Lady Vaila's gaze filled with sudden concern.

  “My dear Jess, are you quite all right, child? Why don't you sit down right here, and I shall make you and I some tea, and we can talk about whatever ails you.”

  “Oh no need for that, Lady Vaila,” Jess quickly assured. “I had best be on my way so that our healers can access these cuttings at the peak of potency.”

  With a respectful curtsy, Jess turned about, quickly making herself scarce before the all too perceptive Vaila could ask too many probing questions.

  For all that he had been intently chasing mice within the garden but seconds ago, Twilight was by her side as she turned the handle of the thick oaken door, expertly slipping past her as she entered the building proper. Jess hardly felt it when he leaped to her shoulder, smiling somewhat distractedly as he rubbed his cheek against her own, purring softly. She was well used to him settling comfortably upon his favorite perch as naturally as any hunting falcon, his sapphire gaze examining the world around him as carefully as any bird of prey.

  Jess sighed as she made her way through the back corridors bustling with cook's helpers and servants, many giving her a friendly nod, more comfortable with her than they were with most students, Jess treating them with the same warm familiarity she did all her family's retainers.

  The cat upon her shoulder suddenly lean
ed over, tilting his sapphire eyes to meet her own. “You are woolgathering, Jess. Have a care. You almost tripped over that poor little servitor carrying that crock of rather tasty looking fish stew. Do you think he’d mind if I helped lighten his load a bit?”

  Jess grimaced an apology at the startled young boy who had almost dowsed himself in spilled stew, realizing that she had indeed been woolgathering, her mind darting back to those early days when she had been so enamored at the thought of attending Highrock. She had been so excited when she had first wheedled permission to go to the College, following in the footsteps of her father before her, finding no shame in how easy she had always found it to bat her eyelashes and win him over with sweet words and fond hugs, using rhetoric and logic when all else failed.

  It was why she was able to come to the school fully trained as a squire, competent with sword and buckler, grappling, archery, and horse spear, though her true love was the longsword. She felt far more comfortable fully kitted in breastplate, brigandine, and mail armor, the province of knighted soldiers and nobles of war, than she ever had in a fine lady's dress, which frustrated her mother to no end.

  Fascinated by tales of legendary battles between paladins and the forces of evil, tied as they were to the mythical beginnings of their realm, as well as adoring the tapestries lining her father's hall, so man of them depicting great and bloody battles, Jess had long ago managed to wheedle her brother Geoffrey's knighted instructor into giving her instruction, and before long what had been a moment's exasperated indulgence turned to genuine interest. Her strength and speed, unusual in a twelve-year-old girl, had earned his respect, but most of all he commended her sense of tactics and willingness to push herself, virtues that he had solemnly assured his young student were absolutely vital in the forging of any true knight of the blade.

  Of course she did not become a competent swordsman overnight, but over the course of the three years she had served under his tutelage, her instructor finally conceded that she was the match of any civilian and many a soldier with the dueling longsword, and could handle herself competently with a knight's armaments on the battlefield as well. That grudging nod of respect from her hard-bitten taskmaster was a reward for her efforts that to Jess was sweeter than any wine.

  Jess suddenly blinked and shuddered, even as flashes of a warmly smiling Geoffrey, hair shimmering like gold in the brilliant summer mornings haunted her mind's eye. Her powerfully built but kind-hearted older brother, who had always enjoyed teasing her as all brothers do, who she had so fiercely looked up to as a child...

  Just a little boy, gazing at her with no small amount of awe as his older sister wheedled their parents into allowing them both instruction in the sword.

  16

  Jess's heart began to pound, the hallway suddenly spinning.

  “Angels above, a ghost!”

  Jess blinked, focused instantly on the present once more as the young servant before her cried out in sudden terror, having dropped the massive crock that really had been a bit too heavy for the young man to be carrying after all, splattering hot fish stew all over the otherwise pristinely maintained stone hallway, her cat purring as he immediately dove upon a particularly tasty looking morsel of fish, devouring it happily.

  “Twilight, you did that on purpose!" Jess scolded even as the panicked young man screamed of ghosts and dark magics and ran away, numerous servants stopping wide-eyed to stare at the mess before two older ladies began to clean it up with rags and scolding tongues, completely ignoring the strange ebony-furred cat adroitly dodging their rags even as he gorged upon every piece of well-cooked fish he could find.

  Her cat flashed a toothy smile. "Me? I am but a tool of fate, beloved mistress. This tureen of rather delicious fish stew was fated to feed me, and far be it for me to deny destiny its rightful path. Would you not agree, dearest Jess?"

  Jess cocked a jaded eyebrow. “It was fate for you to leap upon the tureen and startle the poor boy into spilling it, not to mention terrifying him to within an inch of his life?”

  At this point her cat was positively grinning. “As it was for you to be woolgathering along this corridor at this precise moment. The conclusion is obvious, my Jess. We are both instruments of destiny.”

  “Get back on your perch, instrument of destiny, and leave the poor help alone,” Jess growled, her cat immediately flowing up her side like liquid smoke, lightly settling himself upon his favorite spot once more.

  “Of course, beloved mistress,” he purred, rubbing her cheek with his own, smelling quite strongly of spicy fish stew.

  She couldn’t help chuckling throatily, stroking his fur. “Evil kitty,” Jess crooned affectionately as he purred, refusing to meet the strange glances the newer staff members sent her way before more experienced ones swatted their peers.

  The older servants flashed Jess apologetic smiles, well used to her, and no doubt loath to offend the girl who gifted them with herbal poultices of such potency free of any charge, Jess sensed, no matter what gossip they shared once she was safely out of sight.

  Jess sighed and shook her head, regathering her basket of herbs and picking up her pace, heading down the corridors at as fast a walk as she dared.

  “Jess! Good morning to you! I don't normally see you taking this route to class, or are you off to see Liam?”

  Jess waved greetings to Erica, relieved to see her looking hale and healthy, for all that she sensed the faint tension in her friend's gentle gaze.

  “You know how much I love classes,” Jess smirked. “Your second guess was on target. I'm off to see Liam, and when was the last time you saw me attending class anyway?”

  Erica grinned. “It's been awhile, I admit. But when it comes to mastering the battlefield, your prowess are second to none.” She shook her head. “I study so hard just to memorize our assigned battlefield accounts and tactical treatises, but when I hear you speak it's like you can visualize the entire battlefield. You don't just memorize the events as they unfolded, learning from the masters, you try to think up alternative strategies, still keeping all the pieces in play, a dozen battalions in your mind!”

  Erica chuckled ruefully. “And that you have the temerity to share those ideas with Eloquin? The king's general, as if you were his equal? By the gods, Jess, I almost fainted the first time you did that. But he actually took your suggestions seriously, and for all that he found flaws in some of your ideas, he credited you with being a worthy opponent against any strategist alive today! And I swear, this summer? While you are baiting our peers into duels with training saber or longsword, he has us study your plays just as intently as the masters!”

  Jess gave a playful bow. “I do my best, sister of the blade. Your safety matters a lot more to me than pleasing whatever stuffy professor I should be listening to even now, if I bothered with that side of things here at Highrock.”

  Erica gave a sad shake of her head. “You'll never know what you're missing, Jessie. So many opportunities to learn and grow. Even eternal summer has to end sometime, you know.”

  Jess shivered and looked away, deliberately not reading into her friend's words.

  “Jess?”

  “I'm off to see Liam,” Jess said, flashing Erica the warmest of smiles, turning away before her friend could say a word. “Now get to class. One of us has to honor the reputation of Squires in academic circles, and the gods know it won't be me.”

  A cloud of warm laughter behind her, Jess hurried on her way, grateful for Erica's praise, all too painfully aware of her own failings as a student, for all that she didn't mind poking fun at herself with friends. At least she could take comfort in the fact that there was one teacher out there who approved of her. And as far as she was concerned, Eloquin was the only professor that mattered.

  Jess smiled, breathing deep of fresh summer air let in from the numerous opened windows as she arrived at the Healers Wing. Always well cared for and kept scrupulously clean, the healers subscribed to the idea that illness somehow hid within the stench
of rot and filth. Whatever the validity of their theory, Jess certainly couldn't fault them for their attention to cleanliness and order.

  Packets of dried flowers and opened shutters allowing for constant breezes kept the air near as fresh and fragrant as her garden, and whitewashed walls allowed for a light, airy series of rooms and corridors. Not that such measures could ever completely hide the stench of true illness, even quarantined as the truly contagious were.

  “Ah Jess, so good to see you!” The preoccupied young man opening the door to Jess’s polite knock broke into a relieved smile, traces of worry softening at once. “Let me get the master, I know he wanted to speak with you. Give me just one moment.”

  Jess stood politely by the door, curious as to what the head healer needed, nodding politely to the warmly smiling elder dressed in white robes who soon approached. "Ah, Jessica. It warms my tired eyes to gaze upon you, a vision of youthful vitality if there ever was one! And I see you have brought your cuttings. How fortuitous! I was just about to ring for one of my apprentices to track you down.”

  Jess smiled and bowed, handing over her basket. With that the ivory-haired man expertly perused her harvested herbs, nodding approvingly as if he held true treasures in his hands. "I swear, never have our herbs been as potent as when you deigned to favor our garden with your tender ministrations." He gave a sad shake of his head. "If you had but the healer's gift, I would count you as my favored student. But fret not. No healer can master his craft without the aid of a skilled herbalist. It is only thanks to those such as yourself, with a knack for measuring an herb's potency and unlocking its true hidden potential, that allows our art to reach heights undreamed of in centuries past. I hope you understand just how precious you are to us, dearest Jess, whether you possess the gift or no.”

  Jess forced herself to smile back, inwardly wilting, knowing that it was her complete and utter inability to cast even the simplest cantrip that kept her from learning the arts of the healer. “I am glad to know that my plants are put to good use in your care, Sir Jevons. I picked them all at the peak of potency. I hope they aid you in the creation of your salves and poultices.”