Arise, Sir Longbow

Danielle’s hand quivered as she copied out her vow from the page opposite. She substituted her name for that of the last soldier to be knighted.

I swear that I, Danielle Longbow, will serve the Kingdom of Crann from this day until my dying day. I will obey the instructions of my Queen and her commanders. I will wield my sword in defence of my people, against any that would do them harm. I will obey and uphold the laws of the realm. 

            This is my oath as a knight of Crann.

            Sir Danielle Longbow.

Her heart was beating audibly as she set down the quill. Breaths came in ragged gasps as she raised the book in her hands and nodded to the queen. Her eyes darted to Carl and Lupita. Carl leaned heavily on his walking stick. Lupita stood, straight backed, and beaming with pride. Carl’s greying hair contrasted Lupita’s midnight black mane of curly hair. He wore a soldier’s tabard. She wore the robe of a witch.

            Others watched, soldiers on guard. A woman missing a hand stood out among the small crowd at Danielle’s back. Sir Jura Ironwill stood firmly in the queen’s shadow before her.

            Stuttering through her vow, Danielle almost dropped the leatherbound book. She set it down in the hands of Sir Fabian Castel, who’s smile was a comforting hug made of teeth. He nodded at her to approach the queen.

            For a moment  the only sounds were the breath of the crowd.

            “Come forward, Danielle Longbow.” From her voice, a stranger might have assumed it belonged to a woman who’d seen a hundred years. As she drew closer, Danielle could hear her rasping breaths.

            “As you command, my queen.” She stood before Queen Malin, at the foot of the dais.

            “Kneel.” Lowering her eyes, she saw that the queen wore blue leather shoes beneath the fancy dress. “For your deeds, I pronounce you a knight of Crann.” The shadow of a sword passed over. “Shit, you could have given me a lighter one, couldn’t you. Never mind.” The flat of the sword touched Danielle’s right shoulder, then her left.

            “Arise, Sir Longbow.”

            Fighting back tears of joy, she stood. Her gaze rose up the gold sown dress of the queen to the sunken skin of her neck. Liver spots covered the skin of the woman who was at most in her forties. Bags hung beneath the eyes. The piercing sapphire blue left eye and the deep brown right eye were as fierce as ever. A grandmother’s proud smile creased her face.

            “Come with me. The four of you.” The queen pointed to Carl, Fabian, and Lupita. Turning her back, the greying queen walked slowly towards the tower. From there she ran the city. It rose from the southern corner of the keep. On clear days all of Leonor City was visible from the southern windows.

            Climbing the grey stairs seemed to take forever, not least because none of them could go faster than the queen. She huffed and puffed all the way, refusing any help. A bustle of activity met them as they entered the highest room. The royal coven, apart from Lupita and the queen, was training. There were five more in the coven since Danielle had last counted.

            Danielle wrinkled her nose as the stench of burning flesh and hair assaulted her nose.

            “There is no gain without sacrifice,” said the tutor. Their mentor was the humanoid avatar of a magical tree. Though it was shaped perfectly to look like one of them it could only colour itself with greens and browns. Danielle knew from Lupita that it had taken the name Filis Fronde and preferred a female form.

            A struggling rat reflected in eyes that glittered green as emeralds. Filis held it tight, even as desperate teeth bit splinters from its hand. Sir Longbow felt sorry for the poor creature, no matter what was about to happen to it.

            “To turn what we have, impotent fire powder, into an explosive, will require death.” The curaduile avatar’s wooden hand held the rat next to a small glass jar of the gunpowder Lupita had been working on for weeks. “Watch them both. See with your souls as well as your eyes.”

            The rat struggled as Filis lifted the jar of dark powder. She closed mahogany eyelids. Looking at her, the rat was transfixed. It began to spasm. Tearing her eyes away, Danielle looked at the powder in the jar. Swirled by an invisible force, the powder seemed to be draining. A limp rat lay in the tree’s open palm as Filis put down the jar.

            Laying the body on a tabletop, the tutor chose a blackened spoon. From a jar she had not touched, she drew a small measure of the powder. Lit by a candle, it fizzed and sparked. With less of the powder from the jar she had altered, she touched a flame to it. The loud crack and flash filled the air with smoke.

            “Magic will not create anything that is impossible. Whatever the difference between the original sample and the new one, we can determine through testing later. For now, practice. Use a spoonful. We don’t want to repeat the accident.” Green eyes looked at a blonde refugee from beyond the northern border. Bandages around the boy’s hands were yellow and brown.

            “Carl. You’re here.” Princess Elspeth pulled stray coppery brown hair behind her ear. Her smile was bright ivory for a moment before turning to concern. “How are you?”

            “Far better now I see you, your highness.” Even when he was wincing with every painful step, the boy couldn’t help flirting. He didn’t look like a boy anymore. He was a foot and a half taller than he had been days before. His skin held to his bones as if scared they were going to run off. His once golden hair was mostly grey. His smile was still that of a rogue.

            “I was just knighted, idiot. Don’t fuck it up for me.” Danielle hissed through her teeth. She knew if he talked enough, he would ask for a kiss Princess Elspeth had hinted at while he was lying at death’s door. Bringing it up around others would only cause trouble.

            “Take the new powder down to the battlements. We need to test it in the guns.” Queen Malin gave a large jar of it to Sir Fabian. Holding it at arm’s length, he nodded. Following the blonde knight down the steps, they ended up on the battlements of the castle, overlooking the city.

            Leonor bustled far below them. Buildings Danielle didn’t recognise were rising out of the crowded streets. They were towers compared to the buildings around them, four or five storeys higher than whatever had been there before. Leonor was evolving before her eyes.

            Stone mined outside the walls by men who would have been their enemies was building new homes. Refugees from the south were flocking to the welcoming embrace of a nation reeling from war. Those only guilty of a potential for witchcraft were dripping in from the north. Queen Malin had promised them all food, work and shelter.

            Mismatched eyes watched adolescents load the new guns with the new powder. They were boys and girls more than they were men and women. They were training with the weapons as often as they could, honing their accuracy on the battlements of the castle. Each had a tattered target to fire at with their little tube. Most of the time, they hit the mark. The bangs were deafening. Clouds of smoke as they fired hid the world from sight.

            As with every child that had survived, they had hardened looks beyond their years. They knew what they were doing would be the difference between life and death, not just for them, but the city.

            To the north, Crann’s soldiers occupied Worm’s Mount Castle across the Worldworm River. For centuries it had been the southernmost hold of Eira Mynydd, Queen Malin’s homeland. The castle had been part of Crann Kingdom for a grand total of two days. Though it shifted the line on the map just a mile, it was a grand victory for the kingdom after many losses.

            Beyond the wall to the west were the deep pits of the mines the foreigners were digging. Every day they earned the respect of people they had been sent to kill. When they were not carving bricks of stone from the earth they were hunting for food. Stocks in Leonor were running low as the winter thawed. Fields had to be planted but they all knew the empire would return. They all had work to do.