by S E Zbasnik
No one was elbowing into her side, grabbing onto her hair…or other parts of her body that were barely in existence. The one perk about being as skinny as the rain when there was less flesh for a random hand to grab onto, it was easier to fade into the crowd. On the not arm, more heel of a famous knight, Hayley was both invisible while also important enough to not touch. It was a strange feeling.
The market was at its typical twilight setting as the day wound down. Handfuls of people hustled back and forth from stalls to try and finish up their lists. Most of those weren’t worth tracking, but the drunks could be great for a few coins assuming one avoided the grasping hands. The giggly boozers bounded around the market fountain, all smiles and waves.
Carpets and cheap tapestries dangled against the horizon obscuring the last of the rays so they couldn’t ping off the stained windows overlooking the square. A handful of bells banged and bonged from the high arches, but the church doors were shut tight. Clearly, the clergy had no use for the market denizens scuffing up their relics.
Her knight paused, staring up at the cross holding a statue whose feet rotted away some years back. It turned the dying wooden man even more macabre. Hayley tried to act penitent, wondering if squires were supposed to be attending high mass all the time when her head whipped to the side. A scent gifted from heaven itself wafted on the breeze.
Drool pooled on the side of her mouth, her nose screaming for her to leap upon wherever this salty, piquant, soul-affirming smell originated. Her growling stomach took command, dragging her towards a smaller stall where a side of dried beef hung from a hook. She watched it sway back and forth, the ruddy brown muscle taunting her with its deliciousness.
A man approached, flipped a coin towards the proprietor, and sliced an edge off into his greedy hand. Hayley shifted higher on her toes, watching each sliver of the dried beef slip between the man’s teeth. Her stomach refused to stop gurgling, demanding obeisance, but she smoothed a hand down her new breeches. There were pockets, albeit smaller ones than she was used to, but they were as empty as her gullet. How could she steal a piece? Have to be quick, both to take and eat it, but…
Darkness eclipsed the slab of meat, Hayley gulping at the black cloud that obscured away her target. She shuddered, fearing that the guards could sense her plans and came to drag her away again, but it was Gavin who stepped forward. “You sound famished,” he said in his grave voice. It was hard for her to tell if he found the idea funny, was admonishing her for it, or simply stating a fact.
Not wanting to show weakness, Hayley hefted her head higher. She was about to tell him she was fine when Gavin walked up to the butcher and handed over two coins. Generous swipes of a dagger from his belt peeled two palm-sized strips off the carcass. Shit, was he going to hold it out in front of her until she confessed she was hungry? Eat both as a lesson?
“Here,” Gavin pressed the pair into Hayley’s palm. The first she jammed into her teeth, her saliva dissolving a taste that stilled the jangling horror in her gut. As the heavenly flavors dripped down her throat, she stashed the second strip away in her pocket for later.
“You did not partake of the food offered in the arena.” The tone didn’t sound like a question, but the words did. Uncertain if she should respond or not, Hayley shrugged. Gavin’s head dipped a moment from its lofty perch. “It is in your best interest to take sustenance when you can.” Now his eyes darted over her matchstick frame. It’d been easier to hide under all the cloaks and shirts she owned but stripped to little more than one pass of linen and Hayley felt naked — as if everyone could read her past with one look.
“It will be a hard year reshaping your form with muscle and strength, food may be not only required for it but a respite.”
Hayley bunched her nose up, lost as to why he felt he needed to talk her into eating. “I like food,” she said, “all kinds of food. Whatever kinds of food I can get, it’s just… I’m not a fan of eating with a pile of vipers at the table.”
Her knight snickered a moment, his closed eyes raising towards the sky, “Then you are in the wrong line of work.” After seeming to whisper that part more to himself than anything, Gavin resumed walking her towards wherever they were heading. “You must have questions, about your new life. About becoming a squire and all that entails.”
“Yeah,” Hayley nodded her head fast. They lost the others back at the arena, each of the knights fussing over their squires like they were grooming them for best in show at a county fair. The entire trek it’d been just her and Gavin through the city. Be a good time for him to knock her off and make a run for it, no one would even know. Doubtful anyone would even question it. Just another rat off the street.
But he chose her. Picked her out of every single other squire who was a country mile better. At least they all wanted to be there, she didn’t have a choice. When in her life did Hayley ever have this mysterious thing called a choice. Why? Why waste what seemed an important decision on someone like her?
Gavin paused in his guiding to turn fully around and wait for her question. Digging a finger into the collar to try and let it out, Hayley chewed on her dried beef, and asked, “How come, if you’re the Seven Serpents, there was only six of you? Did one of ‘em die?”
A snort shot out of his cavernous nostrils, the man shaking his shorn head back and forth a moment. “No. There are in fact at least twenty-five of us in that particular order. The name refers to the seven cities the serpents were formed under. It…it can be a bit confusing.”
“So,” Hayley waved her hand through the air, trying to stall for time, “where were the other Serpent Knights? Why weren’t they picking squires?”
“We were the only knights who required them,” Gavin explained.
“How come?”
He paused, the words dangling off his thick lips, and turned back to her, “How old are you?”
Digging her cracked fingernails over the back of her neck, Hayley flinched at the question. “Fourteen, more or less.” It was the best stab at an answer she could give.
“That is the average age a person begins to squire at, and they remain in the service of their Knight until reaching the age of eighteen or nineteen.”
“Five years?” Hayley gasped. She had no intention to keep at this farce, but she’d been working on the assumption they’d take a year away from her. Make her move rubble, or sweep floors, or polish armor, or whatever squires did to build character. But five years? She’d be an old crone by then.
“More,” Gavin’s piercing amber eyes burned through Hayley, seeming to sense her extreme reluctance, “or less. A new squire is not found until the old has left…or perished.”
“I can die?” Hayley squeaked.
“We can all die,” he said with a shrug.
She pursed her lips at that. No shit, everyone can die, it’s that opposite part of living. But… “How likely is the dying part? Like…plague rips apart a village, or knock your head on a rock and maybe bleed from your eyeballs certain death?”
“That,” the man returned to his march through the masses, “depends entirely upon you.”
“So black death then,” Hayley muttered to herself.
She was fed, clothed, and seeming to be led towards somewhere that was under a roof. It was the best possible outcome in her life in over a year, but she couldn’t shatter the despair cloak clinging to her bones. Everything had a catch. It was only a matter of time until the catch snapped and took out your ankle.
“There is nothing else pressing upon you at the moment?” Gavin continued to talk, his voice sounding less bone-quaking than before. He seemed almost relaxed while gliding them out of the market and down a street. A local girl was tugging on a wagon, trying to get the damn thing to move up a hill while what had to be her brothers jeered and laughed. Or maybe just some regular assholes, the world was stuffed with them.
Realizing the man was waiting for her response, Hayley snapped her teeth. Telling him the truth, that she planned to book it out an op
en window the second his back was turned wouldn’t be wise. “I…I don’t know. The neck of this thing is kinda a pain.” She once again tugged on the tunic, attempting to dig herself some breathing room.
Amber eyes shifted over, watching the scraggly girl yank and tug on the tight linen. Ah crap, was this some kind of desecration? Her fingers paused, trying to lay the collar flat while her knight chuckled. “The master of fashion has a habit of making his clothing to be seen not worn. I’m certain there are a needle and thread at the compound you can use to fix the problem.”
“You think I can sew?” Hayley sputtered. “Wait, can you…ya know, stitch things up?”
His lips stretched wider, the smile causing his teeth to appear like the moon breaking through an eclipse. “There are many things I will teach you, Squire, in time. For now, come along. We are close.”
Hayley fell quiet, her eyes trailing up the tumbling houses of the streets. All across the city, the homes were designed as if someone came along and knocked out the bottom two structure pillars. Top floors leaned outward, looming towards those who waltzed below. It provided nice cover in the rain, but you were just as likely to have a homeowner come dashing out waving a poker at you for trying. She hadn’t been in this area of the city much, far too close to the guard quarters for starters. Most of her time was spent across the river that bisected through Ostmount.
Getting back there would require a boat, or taking a bath in sewage while in her new clothing. She drew her finger against the embroidery. Seven snake heads circled around her chest, each snapping serpent born out of a single body. The body itself was actually a tree, old as shit with various stars lined behind the snake heads. Hayley kept absently touching the damn thing, trailing every serpent head until it ended up in the mother tree.
“Here we are,” Gavin announced, causing Hayley to look up and find…not what she was expecting. Compound put her in mind of giant walls, big metal gates, guards in shiny armor shouting “Who goes there?” at the top of their lungs on the hour. This was dirt. A lot of dirt trampled down by both human feet and horse hooves. The brown and red dirt rutted out to match a parked wagon which parked right beside a simple wooden building. There was no marking outside save a small, crude carving of a snake.
“You shall rest here for the evening,” her knight continued to explain. Hayley swung around to try and catch his eye, but he seemed to be dancing around again as if he wanted to be anywhere else but here. Something they had in common for once. She too wanted and planned to be far far from here very soon.
Then Gavin said, “There are beds inside, each with a blanket.”
A real bed? As in a mattress stuffed with straw? God’s bones. Hayley’s plan burnt to smoke at the thought of being able to sleep off the ground with her toes covered by a wool blanket.
“Once you head inside, they will get you all set up. I advise heading to sleep early. We will have quite a hike ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Why?” Hayley swung away from visions of down-filled pillows to focus on her knight, “Where are you gonna sleep?”
“I have…” He froze a moment, his voice falling to a whisper as he dug into the back of his neck, “business to attend to in the city. It shan’t be more than a night.” He seemed to assure her, but his face fell as if he wished he could stay in the city longer. Far as Hayley was concerned he could remain in the city until he turned grey. She didn’t much care.
“So,” Hayley glanced back towards the building, “I just head in all by myself then? No one’s gonna stab me on sight or anything? Shout trespasser and off with her head?”
“The voice of experience?” Gavin asked pitching Hayley off her high horse. She gulped, her eyes darting to the dirt. Shit, she could still taste it on her tongue after Larissa’s rounds. “It will be fine. They will know you for who you now are. Be on your best behavior,” he said, sounding like a parent pleading with their tantrum throwing child.
Hayley couldn’t stop the eye roll, when her knight’s voice shifted lower, his amber eyes barely flickers. “Whatever you do reflects back upon me. Your actions are considered mine. Understood?”
Her head bobbed even as her mind shouted that that was bullshit. She was her own problem, always had been. Certainly, not one anyone else should be saddled with.
“Sleep well, Squire. I will find you in the morning.” With that, Gavin gave a quick nod of his head and the shining knight walked down the lane and vanished into the sea of tipping houses.
He didn’t even glance back to make sure Hayley went into the house full of beds. The man foolishly trusted that she’d do what he asked because…why? She didn’t have a choice before? She certainly did now.
Tugging on the tight collar, Hayley spun on her heels and began to jog away from the building — when a far too familiar woman came striding up from the side. Hayley didn’t even have time to twist away when Knight-Captain Erin stopped right before her.
“Squire,” she greeted her, the face pinching tight at having to speak such blasphemes. Hayley knew she didn’t want her here, didn’t want her to have a chance.
“Knight-Captain,” Hayley said, trying to show as much teeth in her smile. She didn’t salute, or bow, or do whatever knights did to each other. Chest thump?
Erin’s eyes bounced around the compound behind Hayley and she sighed, “I take it Knight-Captain Gavin dropped you off for the eve. Well,” she extended her hand towards the dangling wooden doors, “this way.”
Shifting her feet in the dirt, Hayley’s legs screamed at her to run. But this woman was tall, and a knight. She’d catch her quick. Then what? Would they drag Gavin into that to punish her? Or, would this Knight-Captain just gut Hayley on the street and tell Gavin that she tried to run, there was no choice?
With her head dangling lower, Hayley stomped towards the barracks behind a smug Erin. The woman began to speak, but Hayley barely listened, “Whenever the knights are staying in Ostmount, their squires will board here. Unless of course your knight chooses to keep you close, but few do. I am in charge of the various recruits moving through here, so I suggest you become accustomed to my company.”
Hayley snickered, “Back at you.”
Barely responding, Erin cracked open the door and held it wide so Hayley had to pass in front of her. Limbs heavy, she shuffled towards what looked like a small gnome someone captured out in the hills and forced to sit at a desk. Hair grew everywhere, white as spider silk and just as thin. Tufts erupted from the ears, the head, out the nose, and off the eyebrows. Hayley was about to form the evil eye to keep the magical creature at bay when the head lifted and a face like ancient folded parchment smiled wide.
“Ah, a new squire. Welcome welcome. You’d be with Ser Gavin, yes?”
She was gobsmacked, Hayley’s chin descending. Erin hadn’t said a word, there was no one else here. How did the little gnome know that? The idea it was magic re-entered her mind even as she sputtered, “Yes.”
“Well,” the old man or woman, it was nigh on impossible to be certain, leapt off the chair, “aren’t you the lucky one. Follow me.”
Hayley cast one last helpless look at Erin, but the Knight-Captain filled the door. At the limp squire’s pleading eyes, she thumbed the golden ringlet in her hair and smirked. A blanket and pillow thrust into her arms whipped Hayley towards the small creature.
“Here ya go, your bedding. Not the best, but we do what we can. Move up to knight, then you get the feathers.”
“What if you go down?” Hayley asked, her feet sliding over the wooden slats. The roof beams creaked from barely any wind, a vast space above their heads allowing the blast of air in through gaps and tiny windows. Placed almost haphazardly around the area were beds, each of them piled on top of the other as if a giant did it. The little goblin knew the way, dodging and dancing through the paths with ease.
“Don’t think dark thoughts, youngling. Up. Up. And up! You can do it if you try.”
She couldn’t stop the roll of her eyes at the thought. H
ayley could try her damndest to become queen but it seemed highly unlikely anyone was going to drop to her feet insisting she’s the long-lost princess to some ancient country. “Here ya go, first here so you choose top or bottom.”
The pixie jabbed at the bottom mattress, the hand indenting deep into the straw. Hayley eased closer, trying to thumb it the same. “Which is better?” Her head tipped upward, uncertain if it mattered.
“Well, most take the top when they can. So you don’t have to deal with someone’s backhoe falling through the slats if’n ya catch my meaning,” the goblin ended by drawing a finger against its bulbous nose.
“The top then,” Hayley nodded, hurling her stuff onto the upper mattress. She tried to scrabble up it, but her foot slipped against the side. The tumble caused her shoulder to crash against the bed frame, rattling both it and her entire skeleton. “Damn it!” she cried, fingers cradling her stupid injury. The only downside to her running away now was she’d never get a chance to wipe that smug smirk off Larissa’s face.
The kindly elf picked up her hand and guided it towards the side. “Here, squire. There’s a ladder built on the end for you.”
Hayley grimaced but shrugged, “Sure, if you want to do it the easy and smart way. I’m more a fan of failing…a lot of failing.”
Laughing, her guide nodded and began to trail back to the front desk. Hayley turned and asked, “Don’t you want to know my name?” Why? You’ll be out before the moon reaches its apex.
“Don’t have to, you’re Gavin’s Squire. That’s enough.” It laughed again, seeming pleased with the answer that left Hayley grumbling. “Ah, but if you need to find me, most around here call me Master Kim.” With that final cryptic word, the unexplainable being stepped towards its desk to resume whatever it did.
Hayley flexed her fingers tighter around her bruise. More pain hissed up through her arm, but in time it’d fade. Given enough time any pain would vanish as long as you kept running. Digging into the ladder, she rose quickly to the mattress. The straw cradled her better than she expected, her ass grazing above the wooden slats but not striking them. It’d be a pity to leave this, but…one knight wasn’t worth a lifetime of service. Rolling out the blanket, Hayley snuggled under the wool and into her first real mattress.
