by S E Zbasnik
Did he mean the gold or…?
“Even a drink of water comes with strings, strings they like to pull at the most inopportune times,” he said solemnly, his voice darker than midnight.
Gulping, Hayley bobbed her head. That single swig certainly wasn’t worth it. But if she wasn’t supposed to take… “Then what’s all this for?” she asked lifting the pile of coins high.
“Services rendered. It is my fee,” Gavin explained simply.
“So knights can accept coin?” She’d been under the delusion that he had to swear off all earthly possessions and refuse money save what Lady Bernadine gave him. Why was he so damn beholden to her if he could pull in this much with one job? “This is a lot,” Hayley said, jangling the coins up and down to get a better feel. She had no idea the numerical amount, but a lot was still thigh quaking.
Gavin smirked. “I am good at what I do. I have to be.” His head dipped at the back half of that statement before he raised up higher. “You will find a lockbox within my things, place all the coins inside please.”
She knew he was watching her, Hayley’s back prickling as she fished out a metal chest that fit into her lap. As gracefully as a pig bellyflopping into muck, Hayley splattered to the ground. She kept the box in her lap as she had to drop each coin in through the upper slot, one by one.
While the jangle of accumulating money echoed through the stable, Gavin continued to try and nurse his wounds. Hayley got about five in when she asked, “What’s all this for, anyway? Do you have to go around taking all those blows to the gut so smarmy nobles get to keep their land?”
“Have to? No. Though Anne being a close cousin to my patron makes this…harder to refuse, I do have the right to turn it down.”
“Then why…?”
Her fingers froze over the slot, the pile of coins spread out as she turned to look up at him. Gavin smiled to himself and sighed, “Because I wish to one day only be beholden to myself.”
His amber eyes burned right into hers, Hayley’s mouth distending as a burning rose in her gut. She shifted the lockbox to cover over her right thigh, her brain terrified that he figured it out, but Gavin turned back as if fully unaware. Closing her eyes, Hayley dropped another two coins in, when he said, “Incidentally, I do know the exact amount I should be paid.”
Hayley chuckled to herself at that, as if she was stupid enough to take a coin when it was under her supervision. No, she’d wait until he had them in his pocket then split it open. Better still to fish out a fancy person’s knickknacks to melt down. Place like this had to be swimming in them. She needn’t bother stealing from her knight when Lady Anne’s was much better sport.
“That’s good,” Hayley said as she slammed the last three coppers into the box, “wouldn’t want to find out your patron’s cousin shortchanged you.”
Gavin snorted to himself, “Most know better than to raise the ire of a well-trained knight.”
“Count Pear didn’t,” Hayley said, jabbing towards the paddock where the enraged sore-loser tossed his coins.
“Count…?” Gavin followed her point until he laughed. “Yes, well…some require reminding at times.” He moved to paw at the shoulder bruise as if that’d help it heal when his eyes drifted over towards a single face standing near the ring of milling spectators.
Gavin launched clean out of the chair, his eyes wide as buckets. “You…my, my Lady.” His voice sputtered out of control and Hayley twisted to find he was staring eye to eye with a woman. A large sunhat was pinned to her head, hiding most of her features in shadow, though the finer doublet and skirt suggested she wasn’t a servant.
A smile of pure sunshine broke over her face and she sidled closer to the gawping man. “An excellent fight, Ser Knight.”
“It…” His eyes darted towards the cleared out paddock as if the mountain was still laying there, “It was, I…” He guiltily drew his hand away from his shoulder before glancing right into the mystery woman’s eyes. Even at a distance and in the dark, Hayley noticed the green aura within. “What brings you to this estate, my Lady?”
While he’d been as stiff as a board around Anne, now Gavin melted into a jabbering pile of custard. His jaw kept knocking together, knees shaking, but his eyes never shifted from the mystery woman’s. Not for a second.
She smiled even prettier than before, her cheeks lighting up as she shrugged. “Our dear Anne’s estate is one that my father’s company does business with. And I heard talk that there would be a challenge soon.”
Gavin’s lips raised up high, nearly scaling to his cheekbone at the news. “Did you now?” Sliding over the dirt, his wounds forgotten — shit, his squire and the people watching forgotten — he reached a dangling hand through the air towards the mystery woman.
She seemed to match it, her palm twisting as if about to catch his, but neither touched. They both paused a breath away, their fingers mimicking a handhold while their eyes burned into each other. Hayley pawed at her burning gut, wanting to hide behind the horse for how thick the embarrassment? Tension? She didn’t know what it was, but it was crushing.
Just as it looked like the pair were about to launch into each other’s arms, a bell clanged from the main house. The mystery woman tipped her head to the side, revealing a long neck, “You should find her ladyship and humor her ill-conceived whims.”
Gavin sighed to accept the inevitable. His voice dropping to a whisper, he ladled into the mystery woman’s ear, “Perhaps I shall see you later.”
Her eyes sparkled as she said, “Perhaps you will.” With that final cryptic remark, she turned to fade back into the press of people all dashing for the supposed feast. Gavin stood frozen in place, a hand pressed against his heart while his eyes watched only her.
Was that what courting looked like? The others seemed to imply her knight was a bit of a tomcat when let off the lead. Hayley had been spared being up close to it before, but with a seeming prize ahead of him, he seemed to glow from the inside out. Rolling her tongue in her mouth, she had no idea how to break him from the spell, when her stomach answered for her.
Gavin turned at the loud growl, his eyes sizing up Hayley shadowed in the stable. Wiping a hand over his eyes, he said, “Come along. We should get some food in you.”
Dashing towards him as Gavin began his long stride for the feast in his honor, Hayley asked, “Was she right?” He whipped his head a moment in confusion when Hayley added, “Larissa, with you taking on all those kicks and punches on purpose?”
He swiped a hand over his hair to wick away the sweat and whispered, “No.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
So this was a library. It smelled like moldy onions and desiccated kindling. Two well-shielded candles burned along the walls, highlighting a single case proudly displaying what looked like twenty-something books in multi-colored leather bindings. Hayley eased into the quiet room, her hand patting her full stomach.
Dinner was interesting, the squires all kicked so far down the table of honor she didn’t need to keep track of her elbows or how much she crammed into her mouth. Somewhere near the head was her knight, who the Lady Anne spent her dinner slobbering all over. When the meal was called, the hostess clearly hoping for Gavin to join her in some private parlor, he said he was still sore from the fight and adjourned to his room. Hayley thought she’d have to go with, what with them sharing and all, but he smiled and let her take the night off to have fun.
Which was how the illiterate squire, bored out of her skull, wandered into a library. Two mahogany chairs, carved to mimic the mouths of lions opened to support the daring sitter, were perched beside the bookcase. A few tiny tables lined the area, one holding what looked like an old bottle of hootch. A second was covered in bric-a-brac: small statues of saints, a quartz vase, and — most interesting of all — a tiny box that shined like a pearl. Its opalescent shimmer twisted by the muted torchlight catching Hayley’s eye and attention.
While the books were certain to be worth a lot they weren’t easy to unload.
They tended to come with questions and could get damaged easily. But that tiny box, why…how easily it could slip off the table and scatter under a case. Take weeks for someone to notice what with all the other fancy shit around.
Her fingers buffed the dust off the table, hiding away the clean square spot where a box once sat. With a whistle under her breath, Hayley resumed her inspection of the library. The only other furniture remaining was a pedestal, a book open upon it. Curious, and with nothing else to do, Hayley approached it.
The letters were done in such a curly script she could barely recognize them. Gavin had her already trying to write out a few sentences, but she couldn’t make hide nor hair out of anything inside the hefty tome. Running her fingers along the heavy parchment, when Hayley moved to turn the page she noticed a fine glint along the edge.
“God’s nadgers,” she gasped, “is that gold?!”
“Cursing the holy scripture,” a voice snorted at her from the hallway. Hayley didn’t bother to look back, knowing deep in her heart that Larissa wandered out of the smokey backroom in order to make her life hell.
Hayley tipped her head down, doing her damnedest to stare at the drawings of snake people wriggling up the sides of the book as if that was all she cared about, but Larissa wouldn’t let her be. “Is there anything you won’t make a mockery of?”
Lifting her head fast, Hayley twisted over to her and put on a fake smile. “Oh, hi. Didn’t hear you there. You tend to blend in. Were you saying something? I mean, it couldn’t have been important…”
Larissa snarled, no doubt planning to unleash a massive burst of venom from her forked tongue when Marco wandered in behind. This was fast becoming a squire party.
“We were asked to…” he rumbled in his earthquake baritone before his eyes rolled up to Hayley and the voice cracked through the sky. “Hi!” Marco’s eyes opened wider at the squeak, and he tried to cough it down. “Hello, um,” he hunched over and whispered something.
“What?” Hayley called, shaking her head to try and clear out the cobwebs. It was funny to watch Larissa, who was now trapped in the entryway to the small library behind the massive door that was Marco. With no choice, the girl stomped inside towards her prey, her delicate fingers prodding at the lion chair.
“I said hello!” Marco suddenly shouted as if Hayley went fully deaf.
“Yeah, I got that part. It was the after bit that…never mind,” she shook it away. Marco seemed to be only capable of giving half a sentence, so there was no reason to try and drag the missing back half out of him.
His head and neck kept dipping further into his shirt as if he was trying to turtle away into a shell. If he kept that up while dressed in armor, he wouldn’t need a helmet. With a sigh, Hayley turned back to the book, but the glitz wore off. It infuriated her that she couldn’t find a single word mixed in with the jumble of letters. She’d been working hard at them for the past five days. Could nothing stick inside her lopsided brain?
Marco stumbled into the library, his great height pausing in the middle of the room as if he intended to be a load bearing post for the ceiling. Larissa oozed around the area, clucking at the books while selecting one from the shelves. She cracked it apart and began to decipher the secret words inside.
Of course, she could read. Was there anything she couldn’t do?
Hayley kept stealing glances from the side, her eyes winnowed down to a slit in order to glare at the girl. Even while pretending as if she didn’t care, Larissa would make coy little lifts of her fingers or a tiny giggle while reading. Shit, did she know too? Did Gavin tell Frederick, who then told Larissa that Hayley can’t read? Her stomach gurgled, the mass of roasted pig dinner boiling at her rising shame.
“Are you working?!” Marco shouted, ripping the tension into confusion. Both Larissa and Hayley winced at the cacophony, the latter turning to him.
“Yup, but it’s a secret job where I’m supposed to stand here and make it look like I’m doing nothing,” Hayley said with a wink.
“Sounds important,” Marco’s flat voice tumbled out so fast she had no idea if he caught the joke until he slightly smiled.
“For the love of Christ, you giant lummox,” Larissa sneered, “she’s being sarcastic.” She snapped the book closed, her ice-green eyes whipping towards Hayley. “There is no chance anyone would give her something important to do.”
“Well, miss the sun shines out my bottom so I think I know everything about everyone,” Hayley began, stomping towards Larissa, “what if you’re wrong? What if my knight gave me explicit instructions to come to the library and keep dried up slugs from,” Hayley lashed out to rip the book free of Larissa’s fingers, “smudging up the books?”
“Then I’d say you’ve already failed, but that should come as little surprise,” Larissa sneered at her, but Hayley laughed so hard her shoulders shook. “What?”
“You just called yourself a dried up slug,” Hayley snickered, her eyes darting over to Marco who tried to mask his smile behind a massive palm.
“I…” Larissa fumed, her face turning nearly as red as her hair. “I did no such thing.”
Hayley laughed harder at her. “See, I said that it was my job to…”
“Enough!” Larissa shouted, a hand whipping to smack into Hayley. At the last second, she darted back from the attack. Her leg bounced into the chair, causing it to skitter, but she avoided Larissa’s slap.
Hayley held up the book as if it were a shield, but Larissa remained in place and called off her attack. “You are, there is no point to you. To why you’re here, to your very existence!”
A mischievous retort burned on her tongue, but Hayley swallowed it back. Lifting her chin higher, Hayley calmly walked to the shelf and placed the priceless book back where it belonged. With her arms crossed, she eyed up Larissa a beat before saying, “All right, I’ve had it. I’m done with you putting on your airs, taking little swipes when you think you can get away with it, like some fat-assed alley cat.”
That description caused Larissa to prickle, her braid nearly fluffing like an angry feline about to pounce.
“What in the nine circles of hell is your problem? I haven’t done a damn thing to you.”
Larissa snorted at that, her head shaking. “My problem? You step into this room, your muddied, dung-coated shoes track debris into a well-respected lady’s library and you ask me what my problem is?”
Trying to act subtle, Hayley took a quick glance down at her heel to find they were mostly clean. In coming back up she spotted Marco doing the same, but of course he wasn’t getting reamed out. No, Larissa barely even glanced his way. Just Hayley, always Hayley.
“You are a joke. No, less than a joke. You are some horrific curse thrust upon all of us.” Larissa jabbed a finger through the air as if there was someone other than Hayley pissing her off. “You are imbecilic, disorganized, incapable of the smallest task without needing to be told every single step.”
Hayley drew her foot against the carpet, trying to not let the shameful part of her brain play over every painstaking instruction Gavin gave her. Often twice and with a held in sigh too. No. This lizard-licker wasn’t going to get at her. “And you’re what, already at the level of knight? Know everything there is to know in the whole world. They should just give you a fancy sword and horse, and send you on your way?”
She expected Larissa to snort or roll her eyes, but the girl chuckled. “Give me a sword and horse? You don’t even know how one becomes a knight. What is the point of you? We studied! We worked hard! We prepared ourselves!” To encompass more people into her rant, her hand flapped towards Marco who was clearly trying to ease out of this conversation.
Growing incensed with being called out, Hayley whipped her glare to Marco and the boy’s head hung down far. So what? So they had a head start at this. How was any of that Hayley’s fault?
“But you,” Larissa continued, her mouth foaming in rage, “you just appear one day, knowing nothing of what’s at stake, what’s expec
ted of you, how to behave lest you embarrass your knight and what happens? Are you removed from the arena? Are you kicked back to whatever rat hole you climbed out of?”
Hayley locked both of her fists tight together, her clean nails slicing over the skin.
“No!” Larissa shouted loud enough to twitch the candle flame. “You are given a squire’s position. Not just any squire’s position you are… You’re…! AAAHH!” Out of words to lob at Hayley’s head, Larissa threw her hands up and screamed. It was funny to watch, that creamy complexion mottled like a pig with pox, her eyes blazing in anger, the lips ripped up into a snarl to show way too much gum.
“Least I’m learning,” Hayley crowed at her. “All you seem to do is trundle on back behind your knight, which any busted down mule can manage.”
Catching on that Hayley was laughing at her, Larissa wiped a hand over her face. It seemed to calm her in an instant, a creepy mask of nothing clearing away all that raw anger. With a twisted grin on her lips, Larissa dropped her shoulders down and said in a soft voice, “While your knight was injured from a fight, his head bleeding, his arms requiring ministrations…you stood in the shadows like a lost lamb. He had to fend for himself making you obsolete. You know nothing. You add nothing. You are nothing.”
Shit. He didn’t say anything about her… Or was he not supposed to tell her to help? Was she just supposed to know, and she didn’t because, because Hayley didn’t know anything. It wasn’t her fault. Who would have taught her this shit? The rats? Maybe some of the other filth running barefoot through the streets? Or one of the chained up slabs of meat on the…?
Her cheeks snapped white at the thought bobbing just below the surface. Less than subtly, she shifted her stance to try and hide away the top of her thigh. If Larissa noticed, she didn’t say anything. There was no way that all-knower of everything and perfectest squire in the land knew that at least. If she did, Hayley’d be dead or worse.