by Finley Aaron
Those men, knowing the point of the melee was to unhorse their opponents without themselves being unhorsed, had commissioned saddles with high backs to help hold them in their seats.
This also gave Ella something to hold on to, and she swung herself up onto the horse’s back as Einhard drew up speed in preparation for circling back.
The sudden added weight of another person surprised Einhard’s mount nearly as much as the sensation of a person leaning against his back surprised Einhard.
The shock was so much for him, Ella swung both her arms forward, knocking the lance (which had already been rattled by its impact with her chest) free from his hand, and very nearly knocking his sword free, as well.
Einhard was completely disoriented, and unprepared for how to battle an enemy on his back. His horse reared up—it almost looked as though Einhard intended to throw his mount backward, to crush the person who clung to his back.
At the same time, Raedwald and Uliad came around and tried to scrape Ella off the horse, but from my vantage point in the sky, if I hadn’t understood their true intentions, I’d have thought they were fighting their teammate, and he, them.
Mirage, meanwhile, was not at all pleased with having Ella forcefully removed from her back. She returned to the spot where she last had a rider, sniffed the air, and finally spotted Ella clinging to Einhard. Mirage galloped over and squeezed between Einhard’s mount and the other horses.
Ella swung onto Mirage’s back and rode to the sidelines, where the heralds were screaming at her that she was done and needed to leave the field.
She gave them no argument.
Her chest throbbed, and she had no doubt she’d be sporting a royal bruise for days to come. If it hadn’t been for the metal chest plate, she might well have ended up with cracked ribs, or worse. But worse than the crushing pain in her chest, was the realization that she hadn’t been much use to Henry.
She no sooner exited the field, than she spun Mirage around so she could watch the battle. To Henry’s credit, he’d stayed clear of her entanglement with Raedwald and his men. The field was thick enough with horses and their riders that neither Raedwald nor either of the Ulsters had reached him—they were all locked in combat with other fighters who’d engaged them in between.
“Allard!” Rolf came running up to her while she sat watching. “Good heavens, Boy, how are you alive?”
Ella rapped the plate at her chest (she would have banged it harder, but cringed at the thought of adding to her hurt). “Metal plate. Brilliant invention. Someone should figure out how to make an entire outfit out of this stuff.”
“Impossible. You wouldn’t be able to move.”
“I wouldn’t be able to move if I hadn’t had it,” Ella noted. “I’d be dead.”
“You’ve got to go to the medical tent,” Rolf insisted.
Ella tried to ignore him. She was intent on watching Henry, who was across the field and nearly out of sight behind the raging mass of men and horses.
“Come on, then.” Rolf grabbed the reins where they drooped alongside Mirage’s neck.
Ella tugged the reins from his hands. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to the medical tent. You’ve got to be half dead.”
“I’m not any part dead. I’m fine, and I’m not going.”
“You flew through the air,” Rolf informed her with no humor in his words (a rarity for him). “You landed on your back.”
Ella couldn’t tell him that her entire torso was well padded to disguise her figure, which had cushioned her fall considerably. Instead she said, “The ground was soft. The grass is thick there, and the earth a springy loam. It was like landing in a mound of hay. Now stop making Mirage fidget. I want to hold still and watch the battle.”
Rolf glowered but did as instructed, which was a relief to Ella, because Raedwald was closing in on Henry.
“He won’t dare hurt him openly, in front of everyone,” she said in a straining voice, hoping her words were true.
“Who there?” Rolf asked awkwardly.
“Raedwald.” It was all Ella could do to point and resist the urge to cover her eyes. Raedwald did, indeed, have his lance trained on Henry.
With a crack that echoed even above all the din of battle, Raedwald’s lance struck Henry’s chest plate, heaving him back off his horse.
“To your feet, to your feet!” Ella called as Raedwald doubled around Henry’s stunned and empty mount.
Henry staggered up and lunged toward the sideline nearest him, escaping the fray as Raedwald bore down upon him.
But there was a crowd on that side, too, and heralds—too many witnesses for Raedwald to continue to attack an unhorsed man who’d already left the field.
Ella rode around the field and reached Henry. “Are you all right?”
“I was going to ask the same of you,” he responded, panting heavily, obviously still regaining his breath after having it knocked from him.
Rolf had run around on foot, his long legs carrying him nearly as swiftly as Ella had been able to navigate her horse through the crowds.
“Come on then, both of you,” Rolf insisted. “To the medical tent.”
Chapter Thirteen
“You are not my mother,” Ella told Rolf in the deepest, most authoritative voice she could muster. “I do not need medical attention.”
“I’m fine, too,” Henry assured them both.
“How can you be?” Rolf asked, his eyes nearly frantic. “You flew through the air.”
“Nothing’s broken,” Ella informed him, even though she wasn’t completely sure of that fact. In any event, there was no way she could go to the medical tent. Even the most cursory examination would reveal that she was not a man. “I’m not bleeding.”
“No, but your horse is,” Henry told her.
This was news to Ella. She dismounted, carefully, trying not to show any sign of the pain she felt, and looked at Mirage’s chest.
There was an awful scrape through her hide, longer than Ella’s hand, though not terribly wide nor deep. Still, the blood flowed from it and dripped on the grass.
“Oh, Mirage.” Ella placed her hand gently above the wound, trying to think how she would even bind such an inconvenient injury.
Rolf tutted over the wound. “You’ll have to keep infection from setting in. That could get ugly.”
Sigismund arrived then with Henry’s horse in tow.
“Come on,” Henry urged. “Let’s get the horses back to the tent.”
“Aren’t you going to visit the medical tent yourselves?” Rolf asked, undeterred.
“What could they do for me there?” Ella asked. “I’m not cut open, so there’s nothing to stitch closed. If I’ve broken a rib, they can’t do a thing for me but ask me to take it easy, which I wouldn’t do even under orders from a doctor.”
Rolf frowned. “You’re bound to have bruising. They could give you leeches to ease the bruising.”
“Why don’t you run to fetch me some leeches while I attend to my horse, then?” Ella asked.
Rolf laughed at her.
Henry turned to Sigismund. “Sigi, run by the medical tent and fetch some leeches. Meet us back at our tent. Have you got that?”
“How many leeches?” Sigismund asked.
“Fifteen,” Henry instructed.
Ella’s eyes went wide.
Henry saw the reaction on her face. “I’ve got bruising, too, no doubt,” he explained.
Sigismund ran off, and Rolf spotted another group of friends, and headed with them to an ale tent, leaving Henry and Ella to pick their way through the crowd, leading their horses.
“Are you quite all right?” Henry asked again.
“I’ll be fine. My pride was wounded more than my body.”
“Mine, too.”
“Do you think it will at least dampen their anger toward us?”
“Am I still second in line for the crown?” Henry asked, leaning close so no one else would overhear.
El
la laughed, and had to catch herself quickly to make the sound low and rumbly, instead of light and rippling like a brook. “He’ll hate you forever, I suppose,” Ella concluded.
“And you, too, for as long as you take my side.”
“Forever, then.”
They walked the rest of the way in silence.
I flew above them, watching, and knew something Ella would not dare to admit to herself for a very, very long time to come.
She loved him. That is not to say she was necessarily in love with him, but she loved him with the kind of ardent devotion that would face a charging line of knights on horseback, take two lances to the chest, fly through the air, and still wonder if she couldn’t do something more to keep him safe.
Knowing this, as I did, from observing the child who had been in my care since her birth, I couldn’t help wondering how Henry felt about her. He saw her as a loyal friend, no doubt, and appreciated her willingness to use her skills in his defense. And he was as chivalrous as any knight who ever lived.
But did he care for her especially?
I would learn the answer to that question in surprising ways in the weeks to come.
Ah, flibbertigibbets and fairy dust! Here I go on ahead of myself again.
Where were we?
Ah, yes. Ella and Henry reached the tent, and Ella bent to inspect Mirage’s wound more closely.
Henry removed the saddle from his horse, then leaned toward Ella. “There’s a hot saline spring that’s said to have healing properties. It’s not far from the castle. Supposed to be a secret, but…I could get you there. It would be good for Mirage’s cut, and your bruises.”
Ella’s mouth dropped open. The thought of bathing in a hot spring sounded heavenly, healing properties or not. But she couldn’t think how she could get away with it with Henry along.
Perhaps she ought to tell him who she really was.
But no, he was trusting her to keep him safe. Or more accurately, he was trusting Allard. He’d feel betrayed to learn he’d put his trust in a girl. And that wasn’t even taking into consideration that what she’d done was probably against the rules, even if no one had ever quite bothered to write rules against women participating in tournaments. They would if her identity was made public.
Henry set down the saddle and returned for the rest of the horse’s gear. “Think about it. There’s still daylight left enough to find it, though you’ll have to mark the way. I can’t stay long enough to lead you back again, or even stay at all. I’ve got a meeting with the tournament organizers. I’m on the tournament council, and besides that, Charmont is the host city and I’m its representative, so I can’t be late.”
Ella pulled the saddle off Mirage while Henry spoke, and exhaled audibly as she set the saddle in its spot. Though she meant to disguise the sigh as one of effort, it was actually a sigh of immense relief. “The salt springs sound like a brilliant answer. It won’t be too much trouble?”
“Glad to do it. I need you and your horse in top form for next weekend’s tournament in Bonn. The field will be twice as thick as it was today. Gather your bath things and a change of clothes, and we can leave as soon as you’re ready.”
Ella did so. She felt bad riding Mirage injured, but as Henry noted, the bleeding had slowed considerably, and didn’t pick up even with Ella on Mirage’s back.
They rode to the riverside, and from there, upstream toward the castle.
“Will I be trespassing?” Ella asked with hesitation as they passed a sign warning intruders away from the royal grounds.
“You do remember who I really am, don’t you?” Henry asked with a laugh that was only slightly tinged with worry. “You didn’t hit your head that hard, did you?”
“Of course I remember who you are. But you’re not going to be with me, so…”
“It’s fine. No one ever comes down here, not even my sisters, not since our mother died. It was one of our mother’s favorite places. She brought us here all the time when we were young, especially if any of us took ill. But her passing has tarnished the memory of the place, and we’ve avoided it ever since. No one else has ever been allowed to know it exists, in order to maintain our privacy.”
“Are you sure you want to show me how to find it?”
“You’re not going to share the secret with anyone, are you?”
“No.”
“Then it’s fine. Are you taking note of the way so you can get back again?”
“We’ve followed the river and then the path. The path doesn’t fork, does it?”
“No, but it does thin in places.”
Indeed, the path narrowed as they talked, and rocks grew up in cliff sides on either side of them, until they were walking single file in a tight ravine, barely wide enough for the horses to pass without brushing the sides of the rock. There were sharp turns in several places, so that each time Ella felt certain they were about to walk into a wall of solid rock, but then it bent round abruptly to reveal the way.
The further they went, the more the air smelled of moisture and salt and other minerals, reminding Ella of the briny scent of the seaport towns she’d visited on journeys with her father. Sounds of dripping and trickling water echoed through the warm rocky chamber.
Soon the path sloped downward, and Henry ducked his head as they passed under the lip of overhanging rock.
“It’s in a cave?” Ella asked.
“A grotto. Cave. Whatever you wish to call it. Can you see well enough? There’s a hole in the ceiling up ahead, and light comes through again, but this stretch is dark, especially since the sun’s getting low.”
Ella assured him she could see the way well enough. Part of that was because I’d increased my glow a tiny smidgen (flying behind the prince’s head, of course). Soon they reached a room where evening light poured through a great space in the ceiling, illuminating a rippling pool beneath. Large pillars of salty minerals hung from the ceiling and rose from the floor, in places meeting together, creating pillars of salt.
“Is it entirely safe?” Ella asked, dismounting to stand next to Henry at the water’s edge.
“Oh, quite safe. You’ll want to lead Mirage in and out of the water via that gentle slope, there.” He pointed to where water lapped at the banks, then gestured toward the opposite end of the pool. “Just don’t go up that path, there. It leads to the lower levels of the castle, mostly past the wine cellars, and up the stairs, but if you take a wrong turn you could end up in the stables or the dungeons. It’s easy to get lost going that way. Are you sure you can find your way out again?”
Ella looked behind her the way they’d come. “That way?”
“Yes. And that’s the way I’m going now. I’ll see you back at the tent later, or in the morning. I may be late. These meetings,” he yawned and shook his head. “Sometimes they go late.”
Ella thanked him profusely for his help, but he hurried off.
I flew after him to make sure he was gone. When he was well out of sight, I flew back to Ella and assured her she was alone.
She was already sitting on a flat rock, peeling her pants past her feet. The top piece of her armor gave her the most trouble. I could see the pain on her face as she raised her arms above her head, and her bruises were already turning angry shades of red and purple.
Carefully, Ella led Mirage into the water. The horse was hesitant at first, and recoiled slightly when the salty water reached her cut. But then she eased forward and was soon dipping her head into the water and shaking her mane with delight.
“Ah!” Ella called to the horse as she treaded water at the deeper end of the pool. “It feels good to be weightless—and clean!”
She unbound her long blonde braid and washed her hair, combing it out in the pool before braiding it neatly and pinning it up again.
As the sun left the sky and the grotto grew dark, I grew in size and glowed more brightly, so that the cave was lit with blue fairy light. Ella relaxed, letting the pleasantly-hot water soothe her tired muscles and bruised
body.
Finally, when there was no more trace of sunlight in the sky visible through the opening in the rock ceiling, Ella sighed. “If I stay here any longer, I’ll fall asleep. Let’s get going.” She swam up beside Mirage and led her out of the pool. Then she dried off and changed into the fresh clothes she’d brought with her.
Though her bag contained the chest-compressing corset her mother had devised, Ella’s bruised chest was in too much pain to even consider wearing it. She layered a vest over a couple of shirts, and decided that would have to be enough. After all, it was night, and by the time she reached the camp, many of the torches would have already been extinguished for the night.
Hopefully no one would see her, or look close enough to notice anything unusual.
While Ella dressed, I fluttered around, lighting up whatever space she needed—inside her bag, next to her feet as she pulled on her boots, the area on the ground where she’d dressed, as she made sure she hadn’t left any belongings behind.
Once she was sure she had everything, Ella looked up and announced, “Okay, Mirage. Let’s go.”
I looked up, too, but there was no whinny of response, no impatient shake of the mane.
Mirage was nowhere to be seen.
“Mirage?” Ella called, but the cave echoed back the horse’s name, swallowing the sound under dripping and trickling noises.
I flew to the spot where Mirage had stood on the flat rocky outcropping after Ella had led her from the pool. Slick water stained the rocks where it had dripped from her mane and tail, and wet hoof prints led away from the spot.
Ella scrambled over to stand beside me. “Looks like she went this way.”
I flew low, illuminating the wet hoof prints along a wide expanse of rock that led in the direction Henry had warned her not to go. I could see the opening of the tunnel up ahead.
Wet hoof prints led into the tunnel.
“Oh, Mirage, you didn’t,” Ella groaned. “I suppose she smelled hay, or horses, if the stables are up that way.” She stepped closer, and peered inside the dark opening.