The Lioness and Her Knight (21 page)

Laudine's new steward was the footman Rufus, the one who helped Luneta separate Laudine from Sir Esclados's body on the day he had been killed. Rufus was blessed with just the right blend of competence, tact, and fatherly affection for his mistress. As soon as he had been installed in his new position, life became easier for all of them. Rufus managed the minor matters on his own and seemed to be able to make sense of even Laudine's most contradictory instructions regarding the rest. At last there came a day when Luneta and Rhience were able to escape for an afternoon ride.

"What a relief!" Luneta exclaimed with a deep sigh as soon as they had left the castle behind. "I think another day in there and I would have gone mad."

"
Insana,
" Rhience murmured.

Luneta grinned. "You know, I haven't used my Latin in months. My father would be so disappointed."

"Your father is a scholar?"

"Not really. He's a farmer, if you think about it. He runs the family estates up in Orkney, even though I suppose they officially belong to Uncle Gawain. But he likes to read, and he was teaching me Latin by the time I was five." She smiled at the memory. "I'm afraid I wasn't very interested at first. It took me years to get past the simplest verbs, all that
amo, amas, amat
business."

"Ah, yes. 'I love, you love, she loves.' I've always had trouble with that bit myself."

"But if you've studied for the church, your Latin must be much better than mine. Didn't you say you had read some theology books?"

"Yes, but they never really told me what to do about
amo, amas.
Theology's frustrating that way. But enough about Latin. You just said that you were about to go mad at Laudine's castle."

"
Insana.
"

"Exactly. So why don't you leave?"

Luneta watched her horse flick his ears at a fly, then said, "I don't know where to go."

"Do you want to go to Camelot?"

"I used to."

"How about home? I could escort you to your parents."

Luneta nodded. "Yes, I think I'd like that. But not yet."

"When, then?"

"I don't know." Luneta peeked at Rhience's puzzled face. "It's just that ... I left home to become my own person. I didn't know it then, but I was tired of being just my parents' daughter. If I go back now, I don't think I'll be any different. Nothing has really happened to me."

Rhience's shoulders began to shake. "I see," he said unsteadily. "No, I daresay you're right. You haven't changed a bit in the past ten months, except for the bit about becoming an enchantress, and you really haven't had any interesting experiences except for being imprisoned and nearly burned at the stake."

"
Es asinus,
" Luneta said without rancor. "That's not what I ... what's that?"

"What's what?" Rhience asked.

"That moan. Didn't you hear it? A woman."

"No, but I've grown used to not hearing all that you hear. Which direction?"

Luneta listened for a moment, then pointed to the left, and they booted their horses into a gallop. In a moment, Luneta heard another faint groan and altered her direction slightly. As they were jumping a marshy gully, Luneta saw a flash of blue cloth. Leaping from her horse, she pushed through the spring grasses and found a young woman, her back covered with blood, lying face-down in the ditch. "Quick! Rhience! The crystal bottle in my saddlebag!"

Rhience brought her healing potion, and a moment later the young woman was sitting up, dazedly feeling her back. "It doesn't hurt anymore," she whispered. "And where are the knife wounds?"

"Knifed, were you?" Rhience asked.

The woman nodded. "I feel the cuts in my gown and the dried blood on the fabric, but I'm unhurt!"

"Remarkable," Luneta said calmly. "Who knifed your

"Ruffians, perhaps from my ... no, she wouldn't. They must have been bandits. They took my horse and left me for dead." She felt at her waist, then began to sob. "And took all my money. Oh, what am I to do now?"

"Come with us," Luneta said. "We'll take you to the castle where we're staying. The mistress of that castle, the Lady Laudine, will be happy to shelter you."

"Lady Laudine? Oh, thank the stars! She's the one I've come looking for."

"For Laudine?" Luneta asked, mildly surprised.

"Well, not Lady Laudine herself. Actually, I'm looking for the Knight of the Lion."

"My name is Philomela," the girl began. She had been bathed and fed and was now sitting with Laudine, Luneta, and Rhience in Laudine's sitting room. "I am the second daughter of the Earl of Blackthorn. My older sister is named Philomena."

"I always wanted a sister," Laudine murmured, almost to herself. "I was an only child."

"Sisters aren't that great," Philomela replied. "We've never gotten along, you see. The only time Mena was ever nice to me was when Father was nearby. He always thought we were best friends. Father was a dear man, but he never saw beyond the end of his nose."

"Where was your mother?" Luneta asked. "Surely she saw how things really were between you and your sister."

"She might have," replied Philomela, "but she died when I was three. Father never remarried, and then a few months ago he died, too."

"I'm sorry, Lady Philomela," Rhience said.

She nodded absently. "The past few years he seemed very far away, anyway. Before he died, he had his clerk write a will, saying that all his possessions should be divided evenly between Mena and me. He showed it to us and told us that his two loving daughters could share everything, as we always had."

Lady Philomela was silent for a moment. The three listeners waited.

"But when Father died, the will was nowhere to be found. Mena denied it had ever existed and, as the eldest, claimed everything for herself."

"What did you do?" Luneta asked.

"I confronted her publicly and told everyone about the will. I challenged Mena to go with me to the home of the clerk who had written the will. He would prove me right."

"That was good thinking," Laudine said.

Lady Philomela hunched her shoulders. "Mena had already thought of it. The clerk couldn't be found, either."

Rhience raised one eyebrow. "Would your sister actually commit murder to secure your half of the property?"

Lady Philomela gave a tight little shake of her head. "I can't believe she would. But she might have paid the clerk to leave the country."

"Was there nothing else for you to do?" asked Laudine.

Lady Philomela nodded. "Yes, and I did it. I appealed to King Arthur."

"Worth trying, I suppose," Rhience said pensively, "but what could the king do? It was your word against your sister's."

Lady Philomela lifted her chin. "I appealed for a trial by combat!"

"A trial by combat?" Rhience asked. "Each of you chooses a champion, and the one with the best knight takes all? That's taking rather a chance, isn't it?"

Lady Philomela nodded. "It was all I could think to do, but you're right. Worse, I foolishly told Mena what I was going to do, and she hurried to Camelot ahead of me, telling everyone there how her younger sister was trying to steal half her lands. Mena can be very convincing. By the time I got there, she already had her own champion, and she had gotten promises from all the other competent knights at court that they wouldn't take my part."

"What a conniving weasel!" Luneta exclaimed.

"Yes, don't you hate manipulative people?" Rhience said.

"Hush," Luneta said. "So you're at a standstill?"

"Almost," Lady Philomela said. "Just when I was about to give up, word came to the court about an unknown new knight who had done great deeds in this country."

Luneta understood at once. "The Knight of the Lion," she said. "Of course."

Lady Philomela nodded. "It's said that he slew a giant named Harpin—"

"A giant?" Rhience asked.

"Yes, and also that he rescued the Lady Laudine from a burning stake by defeating a huge army single-handedly. Is it true?"

"Sort of," Laudine said. "Except that he rescued Luneta from the stake, not me."

"And it wasn't really a
huge
army," Luneta said.

"Don't quibble," Rhience said. "If Harpin was a giant, then the army was huge."

"And does this knight really have a magical lion with a flowing mane that fights alongside him?"

"Flowing mane?" Luneta asked.

"The lion's a giant, too," Rhience contributed.

"This knight is my only hope! All the other great knights in the land have pledged their word not to help me. I must find him. Is he still here?"

"No, my lady," Laudine said. "But Rhience here has been his companion before and may be able to find him for you." She turned to Rhience. "Gould you?"

Rhience looked at Lady Philomela. "When is the trial to take place?"

"King Arthur gave me three weeks. That was a week ago."

"I might be able to round up the Knight of the Lion for you in that time," Rhience said after a moment. "I can't promise he'll help, but I'll ask. You stay here, though."

"Stay here?" Philomela asked. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to have to guard you while I search. I don't know if the men who stuck knives in your back were common bandits or murderers sent by your sister, but either way, I'd feel better if you stayed in this castle and let Lady Laudine watch over you."

Laudine looked pleased at this prospect, and Luneta realized glumly that her stay at Laudine's castle was about to become even duller, with Laudine occupied with her new houseguest and Rhience away.

Rhience grinned at her. "Well, don't just sit there, Luneta. Go saddle up."

Luneta and Rhience rode first to Godwulf's hermitage, where the good hermit greeted them with open arms. "My friends!" he boomed across the clearing. "Welcome! Have you eaten?"

Rhience grinned and glanced at Luneta. "That's Godwulf's way of saying 'Bless you, my children.'"

Godwulf smiled at this but only said, "What good's a blessing if you haven't eaten?"

Rhience dismounted. "Still plenty of food?"

"Always. How many times have I told you, God provides like the merry dickens!" Rhience reached up a hand for Luneta. She didn't need help dismounting, but she took it anyway. The hermit continued, "Will you share a meal with me?"

"Assuredly," Rhience replied, "but we can't stay long. We need Ywain. Has he been here?"

"Of course he has. God sent him."

"God sent him?" Rhience asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Ay," Godwulf said contentedly. "Brother Bleoberis is joining me here in the hermitage, but he had to return to Camelot to ask the king's permission to leave the Round Table first. He left me with plenty of meat, but the day after he rode off, a band of minstrels and actors and such came through, and I fed them. Used up my whole food supply. The tales those fellows could tell! And there was this one boy who could bend himself up near in knots! I've never laughed so hard!"

Luneta looked at the hermit curiously. "You gave them all your food? Didn't you keep anything back for yourself?"

"Why should I? I've not been hungry since I came to this haven," Godwulf replied placidly. "God would provide. The next morning, Ywain arrived with meat. That pussycat of his is quite a hunter, you know. We've plenty to spare again."

"Is Ywain still here?" Rhience asked.

"He left three days ago," the hermit said. "Do you prefer venison or boar for dinner?"

They stayed that night at the hermitage, then left the next morning, following Ywain's path to the north. Luneta thought for a while about the hermit Godwulf, then said, "Rhience?"

"Yes, lass?"

"You were a monk once, weren't you?"

"A novice only."

"But you've known a lot of religious men." Rhience nodded, and Luneta asked, "Are there others like Godwulf?"

Rhience began to laugh. "Nay. I might have stayed at the monastery if there were."

"So you think he's really a holy man? But he sounds so ... almost simple-minded!"

Rhience nodded. "That he does. Sometimes I wish I had his simplicity, but I don't and doubt I ever will. Me, I couldn't have given away my last crumb of food and just expected something else to show up on my door in the morning. I would have thought about it first."

Luneta nodded emphatically. "That's just what I mean! All this talk about 'God sent Ywain to me' and 'God will provide'—doesn't it make you uncomfortable when someone speaks for God like that?"

"Not when it's Godwulf," Rhience said. "Oh, I know what you mean. I've heard dozens of religious people talking that way, but in their mouths it was always pompous nonsense. Godwulf's different." Rhience grinned at her. "And I can't even explain why, because I'm different, too. Now here's a path off to the left. We should take it."

"Why?"

"God told me so," he replied promptly. Luneta turned a scornful gaze at him, and he shrugged and added, "Also, there's a really big paw print in the soft dirt up there."

The path took them through quiet forests and over barren heaths. They rode all that day and all the next morning without seeing anyone, so it was a relief the next afternoon when they finally saw another person. Riding around a rocky outcropping, they came upon a cottage where a woman churned butter in the sunny yard. "Greetings, good lady," Rhience said, politely touching his forehead.

The woman scowled at them and said nothing.

"I wonder if you could help us," Rhience said doggedly. "We're looking for a knight who might have passed—"

"Why don't you get out of here?" the woman snapped. "We don't like your kind here."

Rhience and Luneta stared at each other, stunned. "Our kind?" Luneta asked.

"Your kind!"

"Why, thank you, my lady," Rhience said. "You're very kind, too. Now, as I was saying, we're looking for a knight. You can't miss him, because he has a lioness with—"

But the woman only turned sharply and stalked into her cottage, slamming the door behind her. A moment later, the shutters on the windows banged closed.

"'You're very kind, too'?" Luneta said.

"I lied," Rhience said. "But look at that." He pointed to a patch of soft dirt at the edge of the cottage yard. There, clear as day, was the print of a lion's paw.