Chapter 10

The sun was not quite up yet when Kay made her way into the courtyard the next morning, but Reese stood there at the ready, both horses saddled and fresh. Kay found herself blushing, and moved quickly to her horse to hide her emotions. In a moment she had mounted, and Reese was at her side, the horses walking slowly through the main gates.

They rode in an easy silence, the gentle calling of birds echoing around them as the faintest hints of golden light stretched across the dewy grass. The drops of water glistened like a sea of sparkles before them. They made their way up a small hill, and before long they were about halfway between the keep and the chapel.

“Here, stop please,” requested Kay, turning her horse to face back toward the keep.

Reese did not question her, but turned to remain at her side, and together they looked out over the landscape.

A rich hue saturated the fields, the mountains, the stone of the long wall, the trees beyond. And then in an instant the sun slipped above the horizon and the world blazed into color. The rich greens of the earth, the deep blue of the sky, the pearlescent line of grey encircling the keep, it all bloomed into a rich beauty, and although Kay had seen it hundreds of times, it still brought tears to her eyes to look at it.

Her voice was hoarse. “Is that not the most beautiful thing you have ever seen in your life?”

She turned to look at Reese, and found he was staring at her, his eyes looking down her auburn tresses, to her lips, back to her eyes again.

He nodded in agreement, and Kay sighed in relief. Jack had been wrong. Reese did appreciate the keep, did see the beauty in her corner of the world. Everything was going to be all right.

“I need to leave you,” she commented finally, glancing up toward the chapel.

Reese’s face tensed. “Leave me?” he asked, his voice tight.

Kay smiled gently, tossing her head up toward the chapel. “I would miss out on my sanctuary time if we lingered here all morning.”

“Oh!” Reese looked back toward the small stone building, and he nodded. “Yes, of course. I will see you later, then, at our appointed time?”

“I would not miss it for the world,” agreed Kay. “Until then?”

“I will be waiting,” promised Reese, bowing his head. Kay found herself resisting any motion, but at last she gave her horse a prod, nudging him up the hill, heading toward her morning workout with Leland and Eli.

Eli’s young face was bright with excitement as she pulled to a stop, and he stabled her horse in record time. He caught back up with her just as Leland finished strapping her into her gear.

“There are only two left!” the lad called out in excitement. “Do you know which you will choose?”

Kay blushed crimson and focused on the short path which led to the clearing behind the chapel. “I am still deciding,” she mumbled half to herself. “Both men seem admirable in their own way.”

Leland drew his sword and saluted to her, his mouth quirking into a smile. “I hear Galeron is a mite enthusiastic about cataloguing the keep’s faults.” He rested his sword against his right shoulder.

Kay brought her own sword angled downward and to the left, its tip skimming the surface of the ground. She nodded at the comment. “I admit it irks me, but it needs to be done. We want the keep to be secure. Galeron is right – these issues need to be fixed if we are to hold off an attack.”

Leland swung his sword in a high arc toward her left shoulder. She shifted her weight to her back foot, drawing the tip of her blade up, catching Leland’s blade with hers and deflecting his blow off to her right. In a flash she shifted to her forward foot, bringing her sword down with a gentle rap against his head.

Leland nodded in satisfaction, stepped back, and reset his sword to his right shoulder again.

Eli’s young voice piped up with laughter. “You had better not tell Galeron about the ocean-side tunnels, then,” he advised. “That would fill reams of journals, to document those all!”

Kay smiled in agreement, watching Leland’s sword come down at her from her left, retreating back a half step, again deflecting the blow with a sure motion.

Leland reached over to twist her wrist. “Keep that cross guard at an angle, to make sure it catches the blade,” he advised. “Try that again.” He reset and swung a third time, and Kay focused on orienting the blade properly to counter.

“Better,” he agreed, stepping back to reset. “As for those tunnels,” he added, glancing at Eli, “those were checked and sealed up decades ago. Lord Weston’s grandfather had wild ideas about escape routes, but as you know tunnels can be used in both ways. Long before now, Lord Weston took care of those threats.”

Eli chuckled. “There certainly are a lot of them,” he commented. “I have spent every day crawling in and out of them, and I swear I could be at it all year and still not know them all.”

Kay nodded, deflecting a fourth blow, then a fifth. “I have been in those tunnels for many years myself,” she returned, “and I think they get more confusing each time I go down into them. Perhaps they multiply when they are not being watched?”

“That is it exactly!” cried out Eli, his eyes alight with glee. “They are faery tunnels!”

Kay laughed with mirth, and then Leland began his attacks in earnest, and she lost herself in the thrill of deflection, attack, and counter-attack under the darkening sky, billowing grey clouds beginning to slide in from the east.