It’s Her!

“They’ve been arguing for hours,” Agnes complained from inside the wagon while Lorenzo, Cedric and Edgar hurled insults and accusations at Ignatius, whose head remained lowered with knightly remorse.

”Why would they dress you in such hideous clothes? And where is your other shoe? Ugh! I am already so annoyed with all of them,” Duessa remarked, braiding Agnes’s ankle-length locks of black hair while the little girl rested on her lap. “Let them fight. This is how men amuse themselves.”

”Armando says you being out like this while I’m awake weakens you even further.”

“Never mind what Armando says. Hold still.”

“Did you make the vines grow inside the knights’ church?” Agnes asked.

”Of course, darling,” Duessa replied cheerfully. “I had to make sure your sworn knight was victorious so that you were not sent to their silly church tribunal.”

”Some sworn knight. I am betrayed yet again,” Agnes said.

Duessa sighed.

”That is the unfortunate possible outcome when one involves men in one’s affairs,” Duessa said.

“But why would Ignatius betray me?”

“He didn’t betray you, poppet. He was originally sent to Eatonbury to bring you to his disgraced religious zealots. But while he was there, he realized you were too cute, and rightfully swore his allegiance to you. Once he did this, he became part of my army. And I do not share my champions. So I forced him to return to his brothers’ court to make sure his allegiance to them was thoroughly and irreparably… severed,” Duessa said, and smiled.

“Oh,“ Agnes said once realization dawned on her. “And do you think you will defeat Hauroth?”

”Of course. I have done it before.”

“And the pestilence will end?”

“At once.”

“I keep getting captured against my will. I’m half sick of it.”

“I understand, my love,” Duessa said. “I can kill them all right now if you wish. I can always find new doctors and a new knight. Do you want me to?”

Agnes didn’t respond right away.

“Let’s just… finish my braid,” Agnes said. “I can’t even look at them.”

By nightfall, the three doctors sat around a low fire just off the track. Cedric fed small sticks into the flame. Lorenzo stared into the coals.

Edgar came back from the carriage, shaking his head.

”She will not open the door. And she doesn’t want any supper.”

Lorenzo rubbed his temple.

”Leave her be. Today was enough.”

A few paces away, Ignatius sat alone with his back to a tree, sword across his knees.

Cedric kept his voice low.

”If Ansel is this bad, we are on our own.”

”And him?” Edgar nodded toward the knight. “Templars, or whatever they call themselves now, will not forget what happened. I say we leave him behind to his brothers.”

Lorenzo glanced at the silent figure under the tree.

”I don’t know. Not anymore. I think we should consider…”

His words were interrupted by the sound of Edgar dropping his cup to the floor. And by Cedric freezing in place.

”It’s her…”

Lorenzo looked up just in time to see how Duessa had finished materializing from the vines on the ground and hanging moss from the trees. Her soft voice spoke from the edge of the firelight.

”Be some good fellows and pour a hearty one for a thirsty lady.”

She stood just beyond the circle of light. Tall. Slender. Covered in fern. If sparsely.

Since neither of the men spoke or moved, she walked over and took up the seat Ignatius had left empty around the fire. Without another word, Cedric poured another cup, with shaking hands. From a distance, Ignatius stood up, perfectly still.

All three of them gazed at her and, other than an occasional nervous clearing of the troat, they did not move a muscle until she drank the ale. She then called out to Ignatius.

“Don’t tell me you Templars have lost your manners as well as your nerve! It is impolite to remain at a distance once a lady has joined your party!” she shouted. Her words immediately brought Ignatius back toward the fire.

“Got anything to eat?” she turned to Edgar.

While the others remained frozen in place, Edgar managed to move at all to fix her plate. Once assembled, he handed it to her.

They all sat and watched Duessa eat. Quite heartily, in fact.

“Mm…” she moaned. “I get so sick of nuts and berries.”

They observed her bite and chew with greed. Shoulders hunched forward, big gulps of ale in between.

This woman didn’t eat like a lady. She ate like a king.

“Mm…what delicious thing is this?” She asked through a mouthful.

The three doctors hesitated, so only Ignatius dared to answer.

“It’s venison.”

Duessa froze, and spat out her bite.

Then she thought about it for another moment and took another bite.

“Don’t tell my husband.”

And she enthusiastically resumed her meal.

Once she sat back with a satisfied sigh, Lorenzo asked cautiously.

”Agnes is…?”

”Aye. Asleep,” Duessa said, sitting back and tossing the plate carelessly to the side. “At last. After all that jostling about, it’s still a battle to put that girl to bed. She does have the loveliest hair! I am glad I forbid Elinor from cutting it.”

Lorenzo and Cedric looked at one another, but said nothing. In fact, none of the men responded as the wind sent Duessa’s hair in soft flight. She seemed so different tonight.

Solid.

Human.

Tired.

“For centuries, I have kept watch over these forests,” she mused then, gazing thoughtfully at the greenery around them. “Seen war, seen famine, fire, and flood. But not this. Nothing like this.”

She then turned to look at them.

“For those among you still unaware, I mean to fight the spirit that brings such misery to your land.”

”The misery extends far beyond our land, Lady Duessa,” Cedric said.

”Aye. Then so will my victory,” Duessa said, picking a small bit from her teeth with her pinky fingernail. “With your joining my ranks.”

”You’ve said this more than once,” Lorenzo said. “We have yet to hear how we… in what manner.”

Duessa extended the empty cup. Edgar refilled it immediately.

Yet, she would not withdraw her cup. Until Edgar poured more. A lot more.