by S E Zbasnik
Before reaching the tent, Hayley dashed ahead. “Uh, Ser,” she called out loud. Loud enough to draw Larissa’s confused look. When no answer came, Hayley darted her head inside real quick. “No Gavin.” He must have found Myra’s tent for the night.
“Come on,” Hayley slipped a hand around the small of Larissa’s back, guiding the girl as if she was a frail woman. The venomous eyes glared at that, but she gave into Hayley’s machinations and stepped inside the crowded tent.
Hayley was not a clean tent mate and neither was Gavin. They tended to let clothing pile up wherever they felt it belonged, both far too busy to care about folding or organizing. While Larissa stood limply in the middle, her head nearly skimming over the top Hayley dashed about trying to pick up the mess. A few sorry’s broke from her lips before she realized who she was trying to impress. There was no point.
“You can sleep here.” Hayley offered up her bed.
The girl’s eyes narrowed, a hand clinging to her shoulder. She looked as if she was afraid Hayley’s pallet would be infested with lice, or rats, or rat-lice. “Where will you sleep?” she asked instead.
“My knight’s out, probably for the night. Ha, pun, um… I’ll take his, and if he comes back to kick me out, I’ll just,” Hayley scratched hard at her head, ratting the cap, “figure something out then.”
Larissa’s mottled and broken face raised a moment before dropping down. Assuming that was a nod, Hayley shoved at Gavin’s mess and plopped down onto the mat. Larissa did the same on Hayley’s across the way. She very clearly twisted on her side, looking away from the girl that invited her in.
Fine. Two could play at that game. Hayley spun to face the tent wall, discovering a pair of boys were making rude shadow puppets before a torch just beyond. So much for getting to sleep anytime soon. Hayley punched at the pillow, trying to wick all her confused thoughts out through her fist before she remembered that was Gavin’s. Breaking the boss’ stuff was never wise. Wincing, she flopped back down and stared at the firelight leeching through the canvas.
On the cusp of hearing, a voice whimpered, “It’s not fair. It’s not fair.” Larissa kept repeating the same sentence over and over until she faded to sleep. It took Hayley longer, her head sometimes twisting to see that Larissa was still in the tent. Even if the girl got up and ran away, Hayley couldn’t escape one thought chewing through her brain: What was she going to tell Gavin?
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Hayley woke with a crick in her neck, a desert down her throat, and a stack of books threatening to topple onto her head. What the…?
She sat up fast, hoping to avoid the book smushing, but that only invited in Captain headache who marched in iron boots through her skull. Growling more than groaning, she began to tuck in tighter to avoid the world when a touch of vertigo flipped her stomach. Why was the tent on the wrong side?
Her eyes lifted towards where the door should be, but it was… Two congruent thoughts rattled through her head at the same time. One, she was sleeping on Gavin’s bed, and two, she was alone in the tent. Damn it!
Scrabbling to her feet, Hayley dashed out into the far too bright sunlight. She hissed, a protective hand shielding her eyes, when a perky voice said beside her, “Good morning, Squire.”
After blinking madly, Hayley was finally able to risk opening an eye. It wasn’t to Gavin she glanced, but her vision cut right over the blinding ground to find Frederick looming beside Larissa. Betrayal burned like kindling in Hayley’s veins, her entire face puckering up. She was about to lift a hand and accuse the knight when he interrupted.
“Looks like yours had a tough night.” Frederick laughed. He looked fine, normal. Happy. As if nothing out of the ordinary happened last night or the day prior. Larissa was…glaring out at the world. She must have undone her usual braid as the red hair provided a safe curtain to hide below. Her fingers kept rolling the downed waves in a circle, nervously twisting them up towards her head before letting it fall. And the whole time she wouldn’t glance once at Frederick.
“I dare say none of us came out of last night well.” Gavin was laughing, his skin shining bright as if he’d had a wonderful time of it. The grown men tipped their heads closer, speaking of trivial matters. All around them, people began to emerge from their tents to stretch and greet the new dawn.
It was normal. Everyone acted as if nothing was off, nothing wrong. No problem to try and fix. No monster lurking in their midst. Maybe she imagined it. Maybe it was all just some big misunderstanding and Hayley’d get laughed at if she said anything.
All of her excuses died in an instant as she caught Larissa’s eyes piercing over the distance. They screamed, “Don’t say anything.” Which meant there was something to say, something to fear, something horrific done in the dark.
Hayley’s jaw fell open and words tumbled free. “She can’t go with him!”
Larissa’s entire body locked in tight, only the sneering mouth evident below the curtain of hair. But the men didn’t look to her, all their focus was on a belligerent Hayley.
“Squire,” Gavin began, “I know you had your fun last night, but you can see your friend later. Frederick has a match today which he’ll need help dressing for.”
Both girls shivered at the thought, but Larissa got a faster grip on her reaction. Anticipating Frederick eyeing her up, her dour frown flipped into a smile in an instant. That seemed to soothe the man as he chuckled. “Takes me back to our old squire days. Never knew where you were gonna wake up, right?” Frederick jabbed an elbow towards Gavin who laughed along with.
“There were certainly a few beds you did not belong in,” the man laughed as if it was funny. As if all of it was hilarious.
She couldn’t say anything. She shouldn’t say anything. For god’s sake, he was Gavin’s best friend. Even speaking the word would probably turn Gavin against her. He’d call Hayley a liar to go along with the whole thieving bit. Make him hate her forever.
“Well,” Frederick raised a hand near Larissa. He didn’t touch her but both girls held their breath in anticipation. “We should be off. When’s your bout again, Mr. Grand Tourney?”
“Not until the afternoon, and I’ve hardly secured such a lofty title.” Gavin laughed to himself, his jolly mood not dampening for a moment.
The monster waltzed away towards his tent, Larissa in tow. He said back to Gavin, barely casting a glance to the girl at his side, “So modest, as if the entire Order doesn’t have their grouts and coppers riding on you. See you after!”
“Until then,” Gavin called out to his friend as both knight and squire vanished into the throng of risers. The damn breath wouldn’t start up in Hayley’s lungs. She knew she should be breathing, but her entire body strained to try and watch for Frederick and Larissa. As if she could leap forward faster than a mountain lion and pull him off her. As if he’d be dumb enough to try anything in public.
“Squire?” When his fingers barely glanced across her shoulder Hayley nearly leapt out of her shoes. She spun in shock, her fists lifting like she’d have to knock him away. Gavin parted his hands non-threateningly and smiled. “While I can understand an exuberance of celebrating, and it’s easy to overlook given your day, I’d prefer you not sleep in my bed from here on out.”
She couldn’t say anything. No one would even believe her anyway. Larissa’d deny it, probably just to watch Hayley get stoned for speaking ill of a knight in good standing, or whatever they did. Even that one word would damn her for all time.
“Squire? Hayley?”
No. Nothing. It was Larissa’s problem. She didn’t even want Hayley’s help in the first place, just stumbled into it on accident. But there were plenty of places for someone to clean off. Why’d she get close to the squires tables but not join it? Did she want help or not?
How could she not say something?
“Larissa ain’t my friend!” Hayley spat out fast, her eyes darting through the world to find Gavin’s. His jolly mood deflated at the caged in tears she wanted
to shed. With a bite of his lip, he tipped his head in both confusion and asking her to explain. “I didn’t, I didn’t bring her back here for fun. Or ‘cause I like her, or even want to spend two seconds around her.”
“All right?” Gavin spoke slowly as if testing each of the two syllables for weaknesses.
If you take this path, there is no coming back. She didn’t even want your help. She willingly went back to him. It’s not on you to fix this, or anything else of Larissa’s.
“I found her,” Hayley’s mouth opened, the words spitting like hail, “by the river, in tears.”
“And you brought her here so she wouldn’t be alone?” Gavin filled in, trying to smile as if it was a kind gesture Hayley gifted to a turbulent teen. As if in any other situation Hayley wouldn’t have left Larissa where she found her.
Hayley shook her head back and forth hard, her knight leaning closer as she shut down. You can leave it there. You did a good deed. Huzzah. No one needs to know why. No one needs to do anything.
No one needs to try and stop it from happening again.
“She was hurt!” With her eyes slammed shut tight, Hayley kept powering on past every iota of common sense in her body.
“Hurt? From the fight?”
“No.” Saint’s bones, the damn tears were falling again as Hayley drew her hand to the top of her thighs and said, “hurt here.”
Gavin followed and, as an understanding of what Hayley was pointing at rose, darkness swarmed his brow. “What?” his voice dropped into the pit, causing Hayley to squirm. “Hayley, what happened?”
“I don’t know. She didn’t tell me, just that there was blood and…”
“Blessed Mary,” Gavin slapped both his clasped palms to his forehead as if divine intervention could solve this. He took in a slow breath, whispering a few more prayers to his fingers before the amber eyes glared to Hayley. “Who?”
“I…” Hayley looked away towards the horizon. It was going to be a lovely day, with people picking up their families and taking the whole group to the arena. Kids were swung between parents or perched on shoulders, all smiles and giggles. No one sad at all.
“Hayley…”
“Larissa didn’t say the name, exactly,” she tugged on her bunched up tunic, trying to find any way to escape this. With Gavin all but breathing down her throat she feared what his retribution would be if the name slipped her lips. God, there had to be a way out of this. Maybe if she…?
“Who did that?!” Gavin thundered, both hands wrapped around Hayley’s shoulders. The fingers dug tight into her flesh, enraging the second bruise Larissa put there, but Hayley was too scared to feel the pain. Her heart bounced in her chest, unable to stop its roll to doom as Hayley shut her eyes tight.
“She said it, Larissa made mention of it being, implied it was…” Great going, you moron. You’ve just doomed yourself and for who? Larissa? A girl that wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire? Why?
Taking another acrid breath, Hayley’s eyes fluttered open and her dead tongue said, “Her knight.”
The crushing hands released her instantly, Hayley staggering back and Gavin stumbling away. His face turned to ash, jaw slack while the eyes seemed to peer through time itself. Was he thinking the same as Hayley did? Going over every unwanted touch, every jaded eye and full body shift from squires whenever Frederick was in the room? Or was he trying to send this demon back into hell before it broke everything he cared about?
“Ser…?” Hayley tried, wincing even as the word left her mouth. If he was going to go spare, she was the only person in the vicinity to beat the anger out on. Christ’s nails, what did she do?
Gavin’s wild eyes swung to her and she watched while the black pupils dilated over the burning amber field. They seemed to widen along with a plan as Gavin turned on his heel and marched away. With every step, he’d smash a fist into his palm, muttering under his breath. The smart thing to do would be for Hayley to remain there. To wait for her knight to cool down, or at least to give herself time to run and hide. To leave everyone else to suffer her folly.
Damn it. Hayley gave chase through the tents, her long-limbed knight easily outpacing her. She wasn’t 100% certain where he was headed. Maybe to find someone in charge, maybe a magistrate, or even Knight-Captain Erin, but in her heart she knew exactly where this was going to end.
Frederick stood partially inside of his own tent, Larissa busying herself with organizing the armor needing polish. The monster took a long drink from a waterskin, wiped off the side of his putrid mouth, then turned in surprise to Gavin. “Here I thought you had important business to get to,” Frederick laughed, squeezing water out of the skin. A small stream dribbled to the ground, the jolly man staring at his mess.
Which was when Gavin’s fist plowed straight through the air and crumpled Frederick’s nose. Everything happened simultaneously. Frederick went sailing backwards, hands folding up to the blood-spurting nostril as he smashed up one side of the tent. The armor in Larissa’s fingers clattered to the ground, drawing even more attention. All the knights in the middle of their breakfast turned to watch as Gavin grabbed both hands around Frederick’s shirt and hauled him to his feet.
“What the shit was that for?” Frederick shouted, blood spraying from his nose.
“You bastard!” Gavin thundered, lifting the man off his toes. “You sick, son of a… How could you dare do that?!”
“Do what? What is going on?!” Frederick cried. He gripped onto Gavin’s forearms as if that would break the man’s focus. As if it was all some big mistake or a terrible joke.
Gavin hauled Frederick up closer, and in spittle-soaked breath hissed, “She is your squire.”
Hayley almost hoped for Frederick to laugh again and question what was going on. Wonder just what got into Gavin’s head. But the man’s eyes darkened and for a brief flicker landed upon Larissa. Catching that, Larissa turned a full-on snarl at Hayley, blaming her for blabbing.
“Put me down, Frey,” Frederick ordered, but Gavin wouldn’t buckle. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“She is a child!” Gavin wouldn’t let up. He seemed more hellbent on this mission than either Hayley or Larissa were.
Frederick snorted, and the charming smile, the cavalier shrug, the bonhomie itself shattered to reveal the demon below his fair skin. “She is nearly sixteen-years-old with a woman’s form. And you are not her father.”
“You God damn…” Gavin’s fingers let loose long enough to bunch up into a fresh fist and come clobbering through the air for Frederick’s face. But the accused man wasn’t going to give in as before. He blocked Gavin’s punch and was about to send his own to Gavin’s gut.
“What in the name of our Lord is going on here?!” Knight-Captain Erin came streaking through the compound. She must have heard the fight and beat feet out of her tent judging by the towel still tied around her hair and the fluffy slippers on her feet.
Both men remained stationary, their eyes locked as Gavin flexed his white-knuckled fingers tighter to Frederick’s shirt. Erin watched a moment, her hands crossing over her chest. “For the love of…behave like knights!” she shouted, slapping her hands together. Still, they wouldn’t break. Hayley could see Gavin’s shoulders harder than steel from below his tunic. He looked like he was ready to rip Frederick’s head clean off.
“Is this over a bet? Too much drink?” Erin was guessing now to the air, “Some girl?”
“You son of a…” Gavin began again, about to beat down Frederick’s face.
“Knight-Captain!” Erin thundered. “You will put the Knight-Lieutenant down, and you will do it now!”
The consequences part of that remained unspoken, but judging by the fire bursting from Erin’s nostrils Hayley could about guess it wouldn’t be good. Kicked out of the tourney seemed like the light option at this point. Even still, Gavin wouldn’t look to Erin, nor lower his arms for a moment.
“Ser…?” Hayley piped up in barely a squeak.
“Fine,” Gavi
n snarled. Rather than drop Frederick, he hurled the man back towards the broken tent. Frederick scrabbled to get his feet under him, Erin offering him a hand, which he refused. He was too busy trying to mop up the blood dripping from his nose.
“Now,” Erin began again, “will you tell me what…?”
“He raped his squire.”
Every ear leaned closer, every tongue fell dead, and every eye pivoted from the knight who gave that statement to the one accused and then landed upon Larissa. She balked at the attention, her cheeks burning redder than her hair as she tried to hide away in shame.
“You’re saying you think that…” Erin swallowed deep, her voice uncertain, “Ser Frederick assaulted…” She too looked upon Larissa, but wouldn’t say her name, “his squire.”
“No, I know he did,” Gavin snarled, clearly wanting to drag the man out now and be done with it.
Frederick’s icy eyes cut from his ex-friend over to Erin. They didn’t even dart once to Larissa who was wringing her fingers back and forth over her stomach. “Knight-Captain, you can’t possibly believe for a moment…” he began, the charm back in his voice in an instant.
“There were rumors,” Gavin interrupted. He hefted his right shoulder higher, his eyes beating through the horizon as if he was trying to shake away tears. After composing himself, Gavin glared right at Erin. The woman looked taken aback by this turn but not shocked. In fact, no one circling around the tents seemed surprised by the accusation. Only weary and trying to not make eye contact.
“Oh, so it’s rumors that I am tried with. Rumors that damn me,” Frederick kept on as if he had nothing to be afraid of. As if he knew he’d escape unscathed. “People trade in rumors about all of you. If we were to list every foul-mouthed salacious rumor about you, Ser Gavin, they’d cut your head off right now.”
A snarl rose up Gavin’s lips, his hand lashing forward. Damn near everyone shifted when it happened, both Hayley and Erin reaching out as if they could stop it, but he paused before strangling Frederick. “There is more than rumors staining your soul and you know it.”
