Part Six
Cavall Keep
Kel sighed and smoothed her russet skirts. It was the night before competition started, just a little under an hour before the Tournament eve banquet. Kel hated banquets. At least it's outside, Kel told herself. I'll be bored, but I won't be roasting in a stuffy, perfume-laden ballroom. Indeed, the light summer breeze promised to bear away any odors and a significant portion of the heat. Raoul, Lady Alanna, and Buri will be there, too. We can all suffer together. Kel double-checked her appearance one last time. Her dress was made of cotton in view of the heat, and the long sleeves were made of a thin, gauzy material. The bodice was an illusion, the entire dress was actually one piece, a fact Kel was grateful for. Every layer lost was a bit of coolness saved. The neckline was open, revealing no more than her collarbones. The full skirts helped hide Kel's brawniness, but no amount of cloth could turn Kel into a willow-wisp beauty. She had long ago accepted that as fair trade for her combat skills. Kel smoothed her short hair and opened the door.
Mirelle was in the hall.
Kel said a polite greeting to the woman, who looked Kel over appraisingly.
"Your dress is lovely," Mirelle said. "But it needs a little… something. Wait here, Lady Knight." Kel sighed again, this time in aggravation, but she waited. Mirelle returned with a slim wood box. Kel stepped back, inviting Wyldon's wife inside. Kel didn't particularly want to be in the same castle as Mirelle, let alone the same room, but she didn't want whatever bad thing Mirelle was planning to happen in the middle of the hall, either. Kel closed the door behind Cavall's lady, who removed a beautiful ruby necklace from her box.
"Your rubies?" Kel asked, but with wariness, not wonder.
"Oh, no," Mirelle said, fastening the necklace around Kel's neck. It matched the dress perfectly. "This was a necklace Wyldon tried to give me ages ago. I told him I didn't want his gifts, but he kept it in case I changed my mind. It suits you and the dress perfectly."
"But you accepted a nearly identical necklace from Tom." It was not a question.
"Well, the gift is tainted by the giver, you know."
Suddenly, Kel didn't feel sorry for Wyldon anymore. Nor did she feel particularly puzzled over Mirelle's behavior. She wasn't concerned with Wyldon's privacy, nor what he may or may not want her to know. She was angry, furious that Mirelle could be so shallow and cruel and get away with it. If any man had treated his wife the way Mirelle had treated Wyldon, he would have been taken before the Court of the Goddess and killed for his crimes. Yet because of Wyldon's gender, no one could intercede for him and force the Longsbridges to accept his leaving, no one could make Mirelle pay for what she'd done.
"That's the single most petty thing I've ever heard," Kel said. It was as if her anger was a puppeteer controlling her mouth, separate from her mind. "You had four children with him and you won't even accept a necklace? Not even flowers. You hold his arm in public, but when the doors are closed you tell him to break his vow to the gods and to the king to have an affair, then later insult him for it. You make baseless accusations on one hand and scream how worthless he is on the other. It's like you enjoy humiliating and hurting Wyldon and me as much as you possibly can!"
"I do. Not you so much as the Stump, though. I promised him that if he married me instead of my sister, I'd make his life as miserable as I could. And after a while, the means became the end. It's really quite a challenge; his skin gets thicker every year. And his eyes are only pretty when they're black with pain.
"And as for the children, that was my duty. I'm just as much a believer in duty as the Stump, whatever he's told you, Keladry. We struck a deal on our wedding night that after I'd bore him two sons, and heir and a spare as the saying goes, he'd leave me alone. If he didn't, I said I'd remove his reason for wearing a loincloth," Mirelle smirked in amusement. "It's worked out well; he has his lovers and I have mine, though at least I'm honest enough to admit it. Occasionally he'll pretend to be lonely and ask to sleep in bed with me, but that's rare anymore."
The only thing that kept Kel from killing Mirelle where she stood was her vow of chivalry. Kel's fists clenched, and when she spoke her voice was little more than a growl.
"If you hate being wed to Wyldon so much you won't even touch him, why don't you just have one of your lovers declare affection for you and then declare your preference for him. And if your brother starts a fight, take him before the Court of the Goddess."
"Nobles can do that?" Mirelle asked. Her eyes lit up. As much fun as tormenting the Stump was, being free of him forever would be a much preferred.
"I don't see why not," Kel snarled.
"Then that's what I'll do," Mirelle said decisively, closing the necklace's case with a snap. Mirelle left the case on a small table as she left. Kel fingered the necklace, and in her anger decided against taking it off. If that horrid woman was stupid enough to throw away something so valuable, Kel didn't feel the need to let it pass by.
Wyldon outwardly took Kel's new necklace in stride. When Mirelle had asked for the rubies, Wyldon had thought, for a few brief, shining moments that keeping the necklace had been justified. Now, seeing the necklace on Kel, he suffered a deep but not unexpected disappointment. Seeing that feeling flit through Wyldon's eyes, Kel suddenly wondered if she shouldn't have taken the jewelry off. She started to reach for the clasp, but Wyldon stopped her with a look and a murmured, "keep it. I have no use for it, you do."
Kel wore it proudly through the banquet, and stowed it carefully among her possessions that night.
It was only when Kel practiced weapons the next morning that the full implication of her actions the night before became painfully clear.
She had destroyed Wyldon's marriage. She had provoked his wife into leaving him and worn a gift she had had no right to receive. She had--
"--saved him from his own stubbornness," a voice said. Kel's shoulders twitched in surprise. She looked away from the vines she'd been staring at and looked at the source of the sound. The voice belonged to Stevan. "And the fact he let you keep that token shows that he's giving up on hope. You've only sped up an already existing process."
"It's a process that shouldn't have been sped, that shouldn't have existed," Kel said. "I'm my lord's subordinate, I have no right to interfere with his marriage."
"No, as a subordinate you don't," Stevan said. "Wyldon and I have known each other since we were children, and a major portion of my job involves being able to read and predict people. So with that expertness I tell you that as my lord's friend -- and there is no doubt that you are his friend – you do have cause to interfere, especially when my lord is unable to act." Stevan sat down on a bench and patted the seat next to him. Kel sat. "Besides, you haven't said anything that Lord Raoul hasn't said already to Wyldon's face. You just said it to his wife."
"I destroyed his marriage."
"There wasn't a marriage there to begin with, only a trap! Marriage is a contract, a give and take that spans your life. Mirelle doesn't give, Wyldon does that. Mirelle doesn't take, either – she just destroys. And now you've given my lord a way out that won't cause his people to suffer or His Majesty any headache. Granted he won't like it, but he'll heal. He'll have a chance to heal without new wounds being made out of old scars, too." Kel looked at Stevan, stubbornly determined that she had done wrong. "Just think about it, all right?" With that Stevan stood and returned to his duties.
Kel did think as much as time allowed. However, after breakfast were the opening ceremonies. After that competition began, and the chaos of the Tabulation Tend enveloped Kel. The first round went without a hitch, but second round started with two rules infractions that resulted in disqualification. At the end of the round, one archery judge didn't bring his score sheet back to the Tabulation Tent. Kel found him at one of the ale tents, retrieved the sheet, and returned to copy the results down onto the master list. Third-round, an archery judge had given two archers the same score. Kel then had to find that judge and double-check that he hadn't made a mistake. Also during that round a man was disqualified for spelling his opponent for bad aim, which Kel didn't mind - Archery didn't require re-pairing. Fourth round involved so may rules infractions that Kel was left in charge of the tabulation. Seeing an opportunity, one swordplay competitor tried to convince Kel that his opponent's use of a dagger instead of a shield was cheating. Kel brushed him off with a cool, "you are mistaken, sir." The man then got belligerent, even charging into the Tabulation Tent to continue the argument. Kel took great pleasure in declaring him disqualified, even though it meant more work. Fifth round's only problem was a man who broke his leg trying to steal Peachblossom. After competition ended, Kel and Wyldon tallied the results and made out the pairing sheets for the next day's rounds. They finished well after dark, ate a quick, cold meal, and toppled into bed.
The next morning they rose early, ate in the kitchen, and double-checked that day's pairings. First round jousting started with a tie, which was illegal. Kel found the judge, who refused to declare a winner. Tobe saved Kel the frustration of having to declare a re-do of the match by informing her that the first competitor, Raoul, had unhorsed his opponent, but the conservative judge was refusing to admit it. Kel gave Raoul the win. Second round archery was christened by a raving lunatic who ran in front of the targets screaming, "war is immoral! We must have peace!" Kel shooed him away and ended the round by foiling a plot to disqualify the Lioness. A missing matrix sheet began third round. Kel found it - one of the judges had mistakenly used it as a scoring sheet. The king himself interrupted fourth round by touring the Tabulation Tent. He curiously poked at everything, scared the staff, and generally got in the way. Fifth round ended with a fire in the temporary stables for the competitors' mounts. Fortunately, there wasn't enough damage to stall the Tournament. The day ended by tallying the results, a cold dinner, and collapsing into bed. Kel wasn't sure if she preferred her job as runner or Wyldon's job as referee and mastermind.
The third day's first round was marred by the poisoning of one competitor by the other. The victim was sent home and the perpetrator was disqualified and fined for deliberately making another noble ill. Second round Kel noticed that Raoul placed last, while Ansil placed first. Knowing that Ansil couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at midday, Kel tracked down the judge, who had mistakenly awarded the scores backward. Third round Kel disqualified a man for using a mirror on his shield to blind his opponent. Kel was grateful that the third day was only a three-round day - she wasn't certain she could handle another two rounds. Nevertheless, she wasn't free. The extra time was used to eliminate competitors down to the final 80 who would compete the fourth day. It was slow going, involving a lot of comparing numbers, opponents, and in many cases a coin toss.
As they reached the halfway point of Archery, the first event they'd tallied, Wyldon was challenged to a joust. Kel had wanted to kill the messenger and the challenger - she couldn't do eliminations without the Tournament director there, and a joust would mean a loss of forty-five minutes if things went well and a delay of several hours if things went badly. Wyldon compromised by having the monitors place him last on the list and telling his opponent that he would joust after elimination was complete.
They completed the elimination by midnight, and Wyldon jousted by bonfire. Wyldon didn't feel particularly inclined to generosity and sent the man flying on the first pass. His challenger, Burchard, had been foolish enough to joust a cranky Wyldon without wearing armor, so Kel did him the favor of fetching the healers on her way to bed.
The fourth day dawned too early for Kel's taste. Several competitors changed the names on the lists, trying to make it in, and failed. Peachblossom crippled a competitor's mount second round, so Kel paid for the care and Wyldon provided an alternate mount from his stables. Tobe, however, asked Peachblossom and found that the man had lied - he'd crippled his own mount in hopes of gaining use of a Cavall horse. The Wildmage confirmed Tobe's report, Kel's money was returned to her, and the competitor was disqualified. During the third round the King was thrown by Raoul and broke an arm. Kel was happy a wounded monarch was the only problem.
Kel and Wyldon tabbed until six. Shortly afterward, Kel and Buri convinced Wyldon to challenge Raoul.
"He's getting too cocky," Buri explained. "It'll do him good to get dumped."
Against his better judgment, Wyldon agreed. Raoul had no choice but to take the match, and was unhorsed on the third pass. Alanna also took a go at Wyldon and lost completely. She also lost to Kel, which was more of a blow to her pride than the Lioness expected.
"You're small, light and insist on using mares," Wyldon commented as Alanna picked herself up off the ground. He would have said more, but Kel "accidentally" tripped and fell into him, forestalling comment.
As expected, Shinko asked Wyldon to a match with glaives. Wyldon was defeated, but not as soundly as Shinko expected.
"Apparently there's truth to your admiration," Yuki commented. Kel refrained from smirking with difficulty.
The final day of competition went perfectly. Kel and Wyldon tabbed for an hour and then set up the awards ceremony. The king announced the winners to the crowd and the queen placed the victory crowns on the competitors' heads. Buriri Tourakom placed first in Archery, followed by Thayet the Peerless and Lerant of Eldorne. Raoul, of course, placed first in jousting, followed by Andrew haMinch and his father, Vanget. Swordplay's gold crown was taken by Alanna the Lioness, followed by Paxton of Nond and Kel's brother Inness. The king disbanded the awards ceremony with the announcement that the closing feast and Midsummer celebration would begin at sunset.
And it was only after this announcement that Kel had both the time and energy to contemplate her words to Mirelle and Stevan's advice.
