"What is this? Have you decided to demand trial by combat?" Silvana asked. Galahad and his men laughed.

"Oh, is that legal? Excellent." I pointed my knife at the squire.

A cold, suffocating silence fell. Silvana stared at me as if I had grown an extra head. "You cannot be serious."

I did not lower my knife. "You are mad." Silvana decided.

Galahad snorted. "It seems the crippled lord has a crippled head as well. Who will fight him?" He asked.

I responded before his men could. "You."

"You would challenge an armored and mounted squire with a knife and broken limbs?" Silvana gasped.

Galahad frowned. "An unfair contest, and a farce. Calm yourself, lord Leon. I will not make for myself the reputation of a cheat. If you wish to challenge me for the girl, do so after recovering."

A crazed smile crossed my face. "You misunderstand me, master Galahad. I am not challenging you for Alice's freedom. I'm challenging you for your life."

"What is this? A death duel? Unacceptable. Stand down, or I would name you a criminal twice." Silvana said.

"From one criminal to another, I will be seeing you in hell." I replied.

My charge, if you could call it that was more of a hobble, but I covered enough distance to alarm the guards, who rose their spears. Idiots. I ducked under to slash the shaft of their spears, and before Galahad could give the order to fight two of his men had lost their throats. "Seize him!"

The element of surprise did not last. I spun around to throw my knife in another man's eye. Grabbing his spear, I skewered his companion with a thrust, and then impaled another with a throw. I jumped to the fallen man to retrieve my knife. Then, the other spears came. Villagers screamed.

Several ran through my body as others dug into my legs. Pain burned at my back, and I could hear the crunch of bones breaking. Were any of my vital organs damaged? If they were, I could still move. Standing up was a challenge, but I was able to leap at the men who had foolishly disarmed themselves. It was a slaughter, three more falling before the rest fled.

I ran my knife through flesh. It was so easy, so natural. I began laughing. Risking my life for a woman I barely knew, slaughtering people I have never met. Why was this so familiar?

Hoofbeats tore at the earth behind me as Galahad rode at me with his sword in hand. I jumped up to meet him. My good arm flailed useless behind me as my knees wobbled from the lack of bones. As I leapt into the air I could hear more cracks, and blood trailed after me from the many spears lodged in my flesh. A few tore off, splattering the ground a warm red.

In a feat of athletic prowess I managed to twist aside to avoid the full force of the sword blow, and the blade slashed across my stomach just as my knife came down on his shoulder. The knife clanged and scraped against the plate armor, doing no visible damage. Before I broke my bones on the dirt below I managed a good throw with my knife aimed at the squire's neck. As he spun around, it caught his arm instead.

The spearmen were terrified, and surrounded me in a ring. Yet they did not dare to come forward until they were sure I could no longer move. I scared them off again by standing up. I do not know how I managed it, standing with a slump on shattered legs with only a half broken arm for support. "Heavens above, what are you?" Galahad gasped.

Each step I took was agony. My body felt as if it were burning, and strength was bleeding out of my legs to pool at my feet. No amount of training could have prepared me for this. It was overwhelming, but I found it in myself to keep on walking. "A soldier."

I stopped moving as my leg gave out under the weight my own body. Only when I fell did I realize that Silvana's hands were glowing. I laughed again. Sorcery. What a way to die. Six men out of twenty had died before I fell, and Galahad had taken a serious injury. If I had fully recovered, with four limbs and no hypothermia- no, it was useless to dwell on such things. I had lost.

"Kill me." I said. A challenge, and a request. The pain was stronger now, adrenaline leaving my veins along with my blood. My vision blurred. My world turned red as blood seeped into my half open eyes.

"You cannot kill him." I heard Silvana say. "He is a lord. You must try him for execution in a city."

To tell the truth, I'm not sure how that managed to save me. All of that, and I survived because of a technicality in the legal system. For some reason Galahad agreed that it took precedence over my death, and my wounds were somehow not fatal. Thinking back on it, it wasn't too far a stretch to survive the spears. They were crafted rather poorly, and the guards were too panicked to make accurate throws even if they were trained to do so, which I doubt. But the bleeding should have killed me, or the shock.

This would not be the first or the last time I survived by the skin of my teeth. Intentionally or otherwise Silvana had saved my life by claiming the knockout blow herself. I suspect another reason was that Galahad would not be eager to get into a fight with a mage.

I lost many things that day. My half healed limbs were broken once more, and the healing process would be delayed for months. Internal bleeding and damaged vital organs would be an even larger blow. Worse, infections would be sure to follow my untreated wounds, and blood loss would hound me for most of my journey to the city.

But failure to save Alice was the biggest loss for me that day by far. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I had gone the easy route and proclaimed my love for her. It would have saved her from the horrific fate that awaited.