by David Noel
The alpha charged her while she was unarmed but an arrow from the wallwalk thudded into its shoulder. About time! Thought Portia. She threw the jagged axe handle and hit it in the head, trying to draw its attention back to her. The wolf snarled and took a deep breath. Portia snarled back and started charging it empty handed. She didn’t know what exactly she was going to do but she had some vague idea of dropping her shoulder and plowing into it like she would if she was carrying a shield.
The beast exhaled a cone of frost at her as Portia felt herself being knocked off her feet and going numb all over. For a moment she wondered if this was what it felt like to be frozen to death. Her vision cleared after a moment and she realized that Aurora was lying on top of her trying to cover as much of Portia’s body with her own as she could. Portia glanced up at her friend and saw that she was holding one of the scutas over both their heads. Nose-to-nose, she could see that Aurora’s eyes were clamped shut as she fully expected to die protecting her friend.
More bows twanged and she heard arrows striking the ground. Portia peeked out from under Aurora’s shield and saw the beast running toward the stairs that led up to the wallwalk with blood flowing out of the wound on its shoulder and another one on its neck. There was more yelling, and more arrows were fired but none were able to hit it. The wolf ran down the wallwalk and then disappeared from her view.
“My stomach is not a saddle and I’m not a horse, please get off of me,” Portia said.
“Not until it’s dead,” replied Aurora, her eyes still clamped shut.
“Well, I don’t know if it’s dead or not, but it’s gone, so please get off, I can’t breathe.”
Aurora tried but failed to get up. “I can’t,” she answered, “I can’t move my left leg or arm, they’re both completely numb from its breath. I can’t even let go of the shield.”
Working together they managed to push Aurora off and Portia drank in the cold, wintry, June air. Even after the wolf was gone the air was still so cold that Portia could see her own breath. The two girls lay on the ground side-by-side, staring at the blue sky.
Portia could hear the other handmaidens calling for Dr. Zhen, it sounded like they were a thousand miles away. For a strange moment, she found herself wondering who was injured before it dawned on her that she and Aurora were the ones who were hurt. She took a moment to revel in the fact that they were both still alive.
“Good choice of shields,” Portia finally managed to say. “The wooden backing probably saved our lives. Thank you.”
“Thank you for saving everyone’s lives,” countered Aurora. “If you hadn’t killed the wolves, they would have killed most of the girls and if you hadn’t closed the portcullis the Hungarians would have gotten inside and probably killed everybody else.” There was a moment of quiet before Aurora continued. “Sorry it took so long for me to get down here to help. I can’t jump around like you so I couldn’t take your little short-cut,” she chuckled. “I had to go around the long way and run down the stairs. Maybe we need to install stairways across some of the rooftops so the rest of us can keep up with you.”
“Sometimes it’s good to be a little monkey,” sighed Portia. “You know we’ll have to spend a lot more time with the girls working on their archery. That was embarrassing. It took them forever to get the first shot off. Who hit it?”
“Your mother did, she put two arrows from her hunting bow into it. When the portcullis dropped the Hungarians began scaling the walls with ropes and grappling hooks, so the other girls were too busy dealing with them to pay attention to what was going on in the bailey.”
“At least you saw what was happening.”
“Actually, I was fighting with a Hungarian who made it to the top of the wall. And guess what? I did it! I beat him! I did it just the way you and Kurt showed us! As soon as I saw him, I went into machine mode. I charged him and threw my francisca, he tried to shoot me with his bow, but my axe bounced right in front of him and messed up his shot. He tried to dodge it, but it hit him in the shoulder and he dropped his bow. I plowed into him at full tilt with my shield while he was trying to draw his saber and knocked him back on his heels, he kept stumbling backwards while I attacked and attacked with my sword. I finally managed to punch it through his armor the third time that I hit him and I put my sword into his ribs.” Aurora held up her sword to show that it was covered in blood, “Then I saw another one attacking Priscilla - believe it or not, she actually came over from the east wall to attack the raiders and was almost holding her own - so I charged him from behind and knocked him off the wall with my shield. It was after I killed those two that I saw you fighting down in the bailey…” At this moment Aurora’s exultation began to falter as she looked at her blade. She had just gone from excitement over defeating two enemy warriors to the realization that she had killed two human beings.
“It got away I’m afraid,” said a stern voice outside of their vision, “but maybe it will still bleed out.” Both girls twisted their heads around to see who was talking. It was Lady Evelyn limping toward them.
"What about the Hungarians? The portcullis won't keep them out, half a dozen men, working together can lift it and get in; we've got to at least close the inner gates."
Her mother helped her sit up and then held on to her. "Port, it’s okay, the shieldmaidens and handmaidens have driven the others off with crossbows from the top of the wall. They’re fleeing back down the hill even as we speak."
A dozen shieldmaidens on horseback rode past the trio in the bailey and charged out through the gate in pursuit of the fleeing Hungarians. They couldn’t risk letting a bunch of raiders run around in the countryside. There was no telling what kind of damage they would do as they tried to escape back to their home territory. Dr. Zhen came running up with her medical bag and one of her assistants.
“Port, I’m very proud of you,” Lady Evelyn said, giving her daughter a hug. “You were a true Centurion today.”
Portia breathed a sigh of relief and sagged against her mother, her mother didn’t give praise very often and it felt good to hear it. Dr. Zhen dropped her bag next to Aurora and knelt next to her daughter, checking her arms and legs.
“Aurora, I’m proud of you too,” the Gray Lady said quietly. “I know it’s difficult to kill someone but what you did was a good thing. You didn’t murder innocent men, you stopped two men who have almost certainly killed and enslaved more than their share of innocents. You stopped them from coming in here and killing your sisters on the wall and everyone else in the castle. Don’t take pride in killing but take pride in doing what you needed to do to defend yourself and everyone around you. You are a warrior of God, a true Centurion, and he used you greatly today.”
‘Yes, yes, I am proud of you both as well,” Dr Zhen said in an almost dismissive manner. Aurora raised an eyebrow at her mother while Lady Evelyn gave the doctor a wry smile. Portia knew that Dr. Zhen meant it, but she was much more focused on taking care of the girls and not really paying attention to what she was saying. The doctor looked up as they all exchanged glances around her.
“How about the three of you talk amongst yourselves while Bernard and I deal to the medical emergency?” She said sarcastically. The three watched as she pulled a metal probe out of her bag and began touching it to her daughter’s numb arm and watching for a reaction. Lady Evelyn decided to provide a distraction.
“Has your mother ever told you the story about how she went from being the daughter of a Chinese merchant to being the wife of a Centurion knight?”
“No, and I’ve asked her many times,” Aurora said, looking pointedly at her mother.
“Well the story begins in India…”
“Too late, your ride is here,” the doctor deftly interrupted as two young women came running up with a stretcher. “Take her upstairs to her old bedroom above the clinic.” Two more young women came running up with another stretcher, “and take this one to my clinic,” she said, pointing to Portia. She turned to Lady Evelyn,
&nb
sp; “They both have a strong pulse in their frozen limbs which is a good sign, but I am still very worried about any damage the cold may have done. I am going to check the handmaidens at the gate, but it is my fear that they are both dead. They were completely frozen by the wolf’s breath.”
“Anna’s in the guardroom, she was blasted in the face through one of the arrow slits. She said she couldn’t see anything so I told her to stay there.”
“At least she's still conscious, that’s something,” Zhen muttered as she grabbed her bag and led Bernard toward the gatehouse.
Portia looked down at the dead body of one of the wolves as she was loaded onto the stretcher. "Mom, what are those things?"
Lady Evelyn's face darkened, and her voice took on a note of concern. "They’re winter wolves, creatures from the far north that never come this far south. They are very powerful hunters; the one that got away jumped from the top of the curtain wall all the way down to the road. That’s a drop of at least 30 feet and even with two arrows in it the beast didn’t even slow down when it hit the ground, it just took off running. Strange things are happening right now. Two of the men with the Hungarians were tall and blond and looked more like Swedes to me than Hungarians. I think they brought the winter wolves with them."
Lady Evelyn limped beside the stretchers as the girls were carried toward the clinic.
“How do you know so much about Swedes and winter wolves?” Asked Aurora.
“My father was Warden of the Northern Marches like Sir Gerard is Warden of the Eastern Marches. I grew up in Castle Nordhaven near Hamburg. We defended Christendom from the Norse and I have dealt with both Danes and Swedes before. I have even seen a Winter Wolf once. I moved to Carinthia when I married Portia’s father.”
“How did you two meet if you lived so far apart?”
“We didn’t. It was an arranged marriage. My father and Sir Gerard’s father were both prominent Centurions who held titles through the Frankish kings. Having us marry helped keep the Centurion territories and titles in Centurion hands. God blessed me with Gerard as a husband and I like to think that he got blessed as well.”
Portia had stopped listening, she had heard all of this before, but her forehead was wrinkled in thought. She knew that fatigue was affecting her thinking, but she just couldn't wrap her brain around it. Vikings traveled everywhere in their longboats. They could get pretty far inland by traveling up and down rivers in them but none of the rivers in Carinthia ran over the Alps into the northern lands so how did they get here? The Swedes sailed or walked everywhere; they almost never rode horses while the Hungarians practically lived on horseback. It was hard to imagine how two such different peoples could even travel together.
"Since when do Swedes and Hungarians cooperate?" Portia interrupted.
"I've never heard of it happening before, Port, and I don't understand why it would be happening now, but it is an ominous sign.”
Chapter 10
“A lost opportunity is exactly that, lost. Let it go. Lift up your head and fix your eyes on what is before you. Only fools walk around always looking backwards in regret.”
The Centurion Guide to Practical Advice – Chapter 2: Proverb 5
She lay in the dim gloom of the cave nursing her bitterness. She had not expected the raid to succeed; it had originally only been intended as a distraction. But it had come so close to killing the brat! What a waste! Of course, the attempt to take the castle had been doomed from the start but that part of the raid had always been irrelevant to her, what had mattered was the death of her enemy, and the winter wolves had actually come quite close to exterminating that cursed, little agent of doom.
Sadly, the Black was not able to witness the raid directly as she had to stay hidden during the day. She was only able to see it through the eyes of her sleeping enemies as they dreamed about it that night but in some ways that was better, some of the details of the raid were fuzzy but this way she was able to savor every little morsel of fear that the different girls had felt.
It was time for the next step in her plan. She listened for a moment to the gnawing sounds of her children as they chewed on the bones of a bull that she had carried off from a farmer's field and brought back last night. They would be all right while she dreamed. She glanced up at the roof. When her mate had died, she had crawled back into their cave and sealed the entrance behind her and slumbered with their eggs for twenty years. Now that it was time to begin feeding her children and carrying out her revenge, she had been forced to create a new entrance. She had made it in the roof of the cavern thinking that it would slow down any possible attackers as they would have to climb down with ropes to reach her, but part of the cliff face above the cavern had collapsed as well and it had partially filled one corner of her lair making a natural ramp down to the floor of the chamber. She had looked it over from the outside and unless one knew exactly where to look the cavern was nearly impossible to see, but it still bothered her that there was a possible way in. Humans had a nasty way of stumbling into things by accident.
She couldn’t let caution hinder her plans now, perhaps she could even find a way to use the cavern collapse to her advantage. She had waited this long and if she let caution rule the day she would never act. At any rate, she would be safe enough for now while she dreamed.
Chapter 11
“Beware the mother of an unmarried daughter. No further explanation is necessary.”
The Centurion Guide to Practical Advice – Chapter 7: Proverb 1
It took most of the morning to escort the farmer and his family back to their village and it was obvious that the girl and her mother kept glancing at Brendan while they whispered and giggled. The farmer insisted that the Centurions accept his hospitality and he treated them to the best meal that he could provide. He and his wife both kept apologizing for the simplicity of the fare but, to Brendan who had eaten scraps from the garbage at different times in his life, and to the knight and the priest who lived by the Centurion principle of moderation, the food was more than adequate. The new squire found himself seated next to the farmer’s daughter at the dinner table, a maneuver carefully orchestrated by the girl's mother.
Her name, as it turned out, was Amelia, and she kept asking him questions about his background and about fighting the Wyvern. It was the standard tactic employed by women across the centuries of playing up to a man’s ego in order to distract him from her real agenda. Unfortunately for her, it didn’t work in this case. First, Brendan was very familiar with the tactic having used it himself on numerous occasions to get close to a mark he was planning to pickpocket. Second, Brendan’s past had too many embarrassing events in it to share with these people. They thought he might be marriage material, but he knew he wasn’t.
When the meal was finally done, he was ready to hit the road, until he saw the knight and the priest cleaning off the table and washing the dishes. Brendan rubbed his temples in frustration. Why couldn’t these two be more like most western knights? Any other knight and priest would have seen washing the dishes as being below their station and left when the food was done. The mother hovered around protesting that her guests should not be doing such menial labor, but the two men gently persisted in their work. Brendan felt obligated to help which irritated him even more because he had been looking forward to NOT doing the dishes for once. The priest shot him a questioning look and the young squire reluctantly stepped forward and began drying the dishes. Amelia helped dry, an activity that she clearly enjoyed much more than he did. He finished the chore as quickly as he could and the three said their goodbyes to the farmer and his family.
"It’s the Centurion Way," explained the knight as they made their way out of the village. "Christ himself got down on his knees and washed the filthy feet of his disciples as an example of how even leaders should be servants. No job is beneath you if God directs you to do it; we are all servants of one another. You will see for yourself when you get to the castle. The highest take their turn serving the lowest. I am
the Lord of the manor and my duties and responsibilities are different from a serving girl or a groom, but my status is not. Most of the time it is my place to give orders and it is their place to follow them, but I can honestly tell you that I feel no greater blessing than when I get to serve someone else. It helps to keep me humble; it makes me more sensitive to the trials and difficulties of others, and it serves me as a constant reminder that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and equal in the eyes of our Lord.”
Brendan shook his head, nobody else acted like this! Except your own sister, he thought, she would have washed other people’s feet. He paused, where had those words come from? Even the phrasing was a little weird, like he was talking to himself instead of just thinking the thought. Of course, the thought was true, he had never seen his sister wash anyone’s feet, but he knew that was something that she would be perfectly happy to do, she was just that sort of person. He shrugged it off, probably just his own thoughts. Or maybe God is trying to teach you something. That thought was both exciting and frightening to Brendan at the same time. He needed to get out of his own head and continue the conversation.