The Knight Errant

Notes from the author: Hi again everyone. Here's something different, as a nostalgic ode to my youth playing Dungeons & Dragons, Pendragon and other pen-and-paper role-playing games. I know I am no bard but I tried my hand at an Arthurian idyll. I hope you enjoy it.

1. The errant and the prisoner

"Great God! Cadfael, should I die today I would do so knowing I have seen a landscape that must rival Heaven!"

That is how young Eurig de Gomeret summed up his feeling, to his charger horse, upon seeing the majesty of the Snowdon Mountains illuminated by the sunset from the banks of Llyn Cwellyn. So clear was the water that the knight errant was seeing two mountain ranges, one of which was an immaculate reflection of the other. Nature's color palette, blended in a single view, included golden yellows, bright blue and vibrant greens, all promising life, abundance and serenity.

It was thus startling that, from within this idyllic setting, suddenly emerged distant screams of panic, horror and conflict.

Eurig led his charger at a gallop straight toward the scuffle. The screams were both male and female and voiced fear, disgust and rage. Perhaps the feared Avanc had left the bottomless lake and was raiding again, Eurig thought.

What he saw could hardly be further from this. A band of ruffians, four in all and armed with daggers, were molesting a maiden, ripping her clothes to shreds; they seemed more intent on murder than debauchery, as the maiden lay already bleeding from wounds, but she was still resisting and struggling to avoid her fate. This was done under the amused oversight of a mounted knight clad in impeccably crafted heavy mail armor. Although he could not recognize the coat of arms on the shield, Eurig figured the knight might be a wealthy son of nobility.

A renewed scream of terror called him to action and he bellowed. "Unhand her, miscreants, and explain the meaning of this!" This got the knight's attention and he motioned his men to hold steadfast.

Noticing that Eurig wore only a worn light mail armor and was not followed by a squire nor by a retinue, the knight replied with disdain. "Who might you be to interfere with divine retribution?"

"I be Eurig de Gomeret, of the household of sir Eifion le preux. What crimes warrant such retribution?"

"Look with your eyes open, you poor fool! The wench is my war prize, which I had planned to ransom, but we found out she is not a wench at all: she is a witch or a succubus or maybe even a fiend!" To press his point, he motioned to his men and they, in turn, had the maiden kneel to face the knight errant. Although she was still resisting, she was bleeding and quickly weakening. But the sight of her stunned him. As by now she was practically naked, Eurig saw all of her, in all her beauty and her curse. The maiden was almost as tall as he, with long, straight, golden-blonde hair. He could discern that, under the blood of her wounds, her pale skin would be smooth as silk. He was enraptured by her voluptuous figure; at the same time he was terrified by the manly penis between her legs, large and ridged by veins visible from the distance. Had she not been bleeding and crying, he would have been transfixed by the sight of such a nymph. A nymph on the throes of death with three daggers at her back.

"No matter! As the High King has promised his justice to all of the isles of his kingdom, she is to be tried. I shall escort you all to Camelot and maybe our good King, or maybe the Lady of the Lake, can offer proper judgment."

"Then you are a bigger fool than I thought! Far from home and in line with an unworthy usurper!"

"You have not pledged fealty to High King Arthur, as did King Pellinore?" The voice of Eurig was eroding from authority to nervousness, as the outcome of this encounter seemed to be heading in a definitely martial direction.

"Ha! For Pellinore to be king, he would have to actually rule rather than waste his life hunting for impossible beasts! Know that my kin bows to no one and you will only be known to bards as a mindless idiot dying while protecting that demon!" Saying this, the knight lowered his helm and, discarding his jousting lances, picked up a spear, whose pointed head shined brightly in the dying daylight; he trotted away to prepare himself for a lance charge.

(Well, at least I have seen the lake and the mountain!)

Eurig picked up his own spear, clamored "tally-ho, Cadfael!" and charged at the knight. But there would be no glory in the charge this evening, as one of the ruffians picked up a bow and shot at Cadfael, hitting it twice. Cadfael flexed and fell, throwing Eurig violently to the ground. While he rose to his feet, looking at the oncoming charge, Eurig realized in an instant that the knight had lowered his spear, intent on killing his horse first.

Eurig screamed "dastards!" in fury and despair and, setting aside a sharp pain from his right arm, he dropped his shield and picked up, from the stricken Cadfael, his greatspear. In the nick of time, he rushed forward, sidestepped the false knight's spear and trusted with both hands his long spear straight through the armor and the heart of his opponent, whose charger continued galloping along. The knight, quite dead, fell to the ground, sitting, with the greatspear still lodged in him.

That sight stunned the ruffians, allowing Eurig to waste no time in drawing his sword and, with a short dash and a swift two-handed swing, promptly behead the archer. That second sight, with blood and tissue drooling from the sword of the enraged knight errant, was enough for the others, who cowed and yielded.

One of them - probably a squire, thought Eurig - lamented "mercy! This thing is yours... save it if you can. And then save yourself, poor fool, as you have killed Sir Neirin, son of Count Brynmor. He will see you and all of your bloodline dead in front of all Hell!"

"Then go back to that lord of yours! Make some good of Lord Jesus' mercy and tell him that he is welcome to seek me out and ask forgiveness for the perfidy of his household!" They ran in the darkness.

Upon taking in the scene, with the maiden now unconscious and with Cadfael rising to its hoofs in pain, Eurig felt like no victor. "Lord Jesus, what a shamble! ... Cadfael, go the water if you can! And rest!" He pointed towards the nearby lake and his faithful companion-in-arms trotted slowly and gingerly.

Now he could tend to the maiden but, despite her feathery weight, the sting in his right arm would no longer be ignored and he pained, almost to tears, at carrying her to his makeshift campsite, where a sitting Cadfael was patiently waiting. She was shivering and breathing quick and shallow breaths; Eurig knew he had little time to act. He stitched the wounds in the dark and, when satisfied the bleeding was quenched, he covered her in his sleeping blanket and proceeded to start a fire. Then followed the long time of wetting her lips with water and comforting her, with a wet rag on her forehead to lower what felt like a fever. When her breathing slowed and he thought she was finally sleeping instead of dying, he thanked the Lord for her strong constitution and went to tend to Cadfael.

Removing the arrows and caring for his steed, however, proved more difficult than expected. "Some battle prince you are!" He scoffed at the meaning of its name. "Stop fidgeting! Let me heal you and rest!"

2. Introductions

Eurig literally fell asleep, watching over the wounded and still clad in his armor. It was a sharp female cry of pain that woke him up and he was greeted by a terrified gaze stemming from eyes of a blue rivaling that of the neighboring lake. She was covering herself with his blanket and visibly shaking; Eurig hoped it was from fear rather than ill-health.

He tried to disguise his own nervousness and spoke directly to her for the first time. "Please stay still, milady, I mean you no harm. Do you speak Cymric? Do you have a name? How do you feel?" While saying this, he offered her water, which she drank readily.

The answer came in a voice that, to Eurig, could be that of the sirens of legend, if not for the fact that, instead of singing, it was complaining bitterly. "I am Ceinwen, daughter of Heddwyn and Meiriona. Urgghhh... I feel like a prepared piece of butchered meat... no matter... what little is left of my life is yours. I am in your debt, lord Eurig." There was still terror in her eyes as she scanned for his reaction and his every move.

He replied in shy laughter. "I am no lord, milady, just an errant knight unworthy of ransom and as of yet unlanded. If it pleases you, call me Eurig. Now, are you still cold? I will lend you clothing and we could try having you rest closer to Cadfael, for warmth."

"Cadfael... so I did hear right yesterday... is that not a presumptuous name for the horse of such a young warrior?" She was trying to smile and laugh... which melted Eurig's heart on the spot. He had to refrain his urge to caress and cuddle her. She somehow felt it.

"That horse is twenty times the veteran I am, milady. I have seen him come into the world, I have grown with him and I saw him go to war with father, who is a knight himself. They all came back from the battle of the Humber with such glory that my liege allowed for me to become a squire; Cadfael is the boon I later bequeathed, during my knighthood ceremony, and I could tell that it pained my father to grant it. Please do not mock him, milady... he is my closest and most trusted friend in this world, especially now, as we are alone and far from home."

"It feels uncanny to match such a poetic ode to the sight of the man who has slain my captor in a single thrust... which is the last I recall seeing. How are you doing?"

"I believe Cadfael and I will both recover without lasting injury." Eurig lied, at least on his part. "But I only intend for us to travel tomorrow, if strength has returned enough to us all."

"To Camelot?" Now the fear was in her eyes and voice.

Eurig pondered the situation - as in truth he had not thought that far ahead - for what seemed an eternity to Ceinwen. "No, milady, whoever you are, or whatever you are guilty of, is of no consequence to me. Plus, it now seems I might have a blood feud to see through. I know at least that your heart is pure enough for you to trust me and I will not be false to that trust. How far away is your kingdom?"

"My kingdom?" Trust or no trust, debt or no debt, the fear was still very present in her voice.

"You were to be held for ransom, you speak your parents' name with royal bearing and you assumed I was a lord. I will escort you to your home and your parents, if that is your wish, before I see the consequences of my acts to the end."

The fear was replaced by a tear. "Then, Eurig, you are truly a lord to me and I am doubly in your debt. Father rules a small fiefdom around Lake Llyn Llydaw. If we walk slowly and avoid the bogs, I believe a full day of travel should suffice."

They both smiled at each other, in silence, as if exchanging vows of loyalty in their souls. Then Eurig rose in a single motion, startling her. "Good! Then it is settled. Now, please put on these extra garbs of mine, try to rest and convince Cadfael to do the same, I will leave you in privacy to hunt for small game and then try to improve our meager camp."

"You would trust your warhorse to me?" Her gaze was now disbelieving.

"In truth, my thought is more the reverse, but I have a most strange feeling that Cadfael has taken a liking to you."

That made Ceinwen smile a full, warm smile. "Oh! Do not worry then, brave knight... all in my family are able with horses."

Eurig returned some time later with his bounty: the carcass of a young boar, impaled from side to side by his hunting spear, and his retrieved greatspear. He proceeded silently to prepare an afternoon cookout, under the grateful gaze of his maiden who, by now, was famished. Another good sign. She did notice, however, that he favored heavily his left arm for all tasks.

"Might I inquire, Sir, how does the son of a knight get to wield footmen's long spears with such prowess?"

"You are as inquisitive as you are witty, milady. True, the lance charge and the sword are the knight's weapons and I have trained to use them, but I grew up being more a hunter than a soldier. Our family trade was prospecting at the time of Roman rule. As a matter of fact, it is one of the reasons I chose to seek adventure following the paths of mount Snowdon, for I recall family tales of copper mines there. However, since the constant wars with Saxons, Picts, Irish, and other tribes placed more need on knights than miners, my grandfather chose to serve the house of king Pellinore as a squire to allow knighthood for his sons. For this I will be, of course, eternally grateful, but I would have just as well loved roaming the countryside, hunting or looking for ore."

Eurig stopped his tale, embarrassed and mystified, as he could have sworn he saw acknowledgment in her gaze. He remembered he was not speaking to an ordinary maiden and felt, for the first time, the urge to inquire about her nature, but he settled for looking at her feasting on a cooked, unseasoned, boar skewer, which she was savoring as if eating from a horn of plenty.

"Is that why you chose a stag for your coat of arms?" Eurig bowed his head in assent. Ceinwen then pointed at the greatspear and inquired "and what about Sir Neirin's body?"

"I buried both bodies and found it in myself to ask the Lord's forgiveness on their behalf." The benevolence was all leached from Eurig's expression.

"I can see this was a test of your mettle. Still, you are far better at forgiving than I, Eurig... I would have gladly left them for the crows." She devoted herself wholeheartedly to her food afterwards.

3. The bath

The rest of the afternoon was rather uneventful, but Eurig still kept a watchful eye for some village mob that was not coming.

(So the ruffians ran straight back to their lord... good.)

When Ceinwen stirred awake from her rest, Eurig asked her about his foe. "Milady, who is that family that wants you harm and how far away are their lands?"

"Father talks little about them and has even less fondness for them. They have holdings around the village of Rhyd Ddu, south of here."

"Will we have to cross these holdings during our journey to your home?"

"Not if we use the paths to the summit of Snowdon. But if they seek reprisal, they have access to other paths directly to our own lands. We should not tarry here and start the trek home right away."

"Milady, I praise the Lord that you are alive in my company, but the fact remains that you have bled a lot and, yesterday, were at death's door. I will, of course, escort you if you insist on going but I do not think it wise to ascend to the top of Gomeret's highest peak and cross the realm of the Faeries in our condition. Might I persuade you to depart tomorrow at first light?"

Ceinwen raised her eyebrows, as if something in his argument startled her. Undaunted, however, she tried to rise and a jolt of pain convinced her where reason would not. "Aaargh!!! No, it will be useless... very well, Lord Eurig, I yield. We leave at first light. So, now that this matter is settled, might I impinge upon you to take advantage of that lake and bathe, please? Otherwise you will ever remain alone! Cadfael and I have already been in the water." Again, she dared a smile. A smile full of brightness, showing at the same time wit, mischief and perfect, pearly, straight teeth.

Eurig responded in kind and laughed good-heartedly. "Of course, milady! I should have realized riding every day, in armor and under the June sun, would not do well for my personal presence." He scanned the horizon before continuing. "If I can soothe your nose as well as your wounds, all the better; I see no oncoming threat and feel no immediate danger, so I shall leave you to Cadfael's care and venture to the lake. I shall not take long."

"On the contrary, you should!" For the first time, she laughed. Laughter from a voice a pure beauty, with a melody and harmony that would certainly rival the herald of angels. Eurig just stood there, dumbfounded. He had not felt so tingly since his last meal at his liege's hall, after too much ale. "Well?" That quip snapped him back to reality.

"Oh! Of course, yes, yes... I shall return, then." Eurig was blushing. He knew it, she saw it. Eurig walked from their camp towards the lake and distanced himself a bit before disrobing. Ceinwen noticed, for the first time, that Eurig had actually given her his best court clothing and kept his plain garbs for himself. She kept feeling signs, or maybe hoping, that his behavior went beyond chivalry or courtesy.

She lifted her own clothing to examine her stitches: truth be told, she had received excellent first aid, especially considering it had been performed under duress and in weak lighting. She then felt a flutter in her heart and a tingling in her loins and raised her head to peak at her bathing savior. Eurig was tall, slightly more than she, and with a lean body of worn muscles, scars and sunburned skin. He was not hulking but rather dashing, especially thanks to his face, which had a noble nose that seemed to inspire dignity and wisdom when you looked at him.

"I do not know if that bath will soothe my nose, but it already does wonders for my eyes, Eurig! Hi hi!" Eurig made an about-face in the water, startled. "The Goddess is kind to send me such a handsome hero!"

Eurig's face flushed deep-red and he instantly dropped in the lake to his shoulders. "Milady, please do not jest and let me bathe in privacy!"

"Why would I deprive myself of the pleasure of having you at my mercy?"

"Please, I implore your pity... and what would your parents think of us if they saw this scene?"

"If you must know, Mother would probably laugh and partake. Celebrating the flesh, creating life, is celebrating the Goddess. Father, on the other hand, would probably notice your blushing and betroth us on the spot. Would you like that?"

"Milady, please respect my embarrassment. And do not speak so of your parents. The daughter of a landed lord should not marry a mere errant knight who has neither wealth nor glory. I have nothing to bring to your household."

"My good lord Eurig, you should know that I never lie, whether the matter is important or trivial. And you are the first person, of any rank, who has not seen me as a demon to exorcise or a pariah to shun. My entire existence has been the result of the love of my parents, for themselves and for me, so I know for a fact that Father would be happy to give you my hand. Now, would you accept it?"

Eurig felt like a slow torture in his heart, plus the very real pain that the cold water was inflicting on his right arm. "Milady, to me this is not a game and I only have my heartfelt truth to tell you. I have nothing to offer you but my heart, my sword arm and my love. You are as beautiful and desirable as Queen Guinevere herself and I would gladly follow the example she sets and worship you, do your bidding and seek your favor to my last breath. But the rules of fine Amor have nothing to do with the laws of fealty that rule over my life. I do not have permission to marry nor have I been offered your hand."

"But would you accept it?"

Eurig was cornered, and also a bit hopeful. "Of course I would milady... and thank the Good Lord for every single day spent with you." Saying that, he was slowly rising over the water to ease his right arm. Ceinwen had a startled, hopeful, lustful look in her blue eyes, until she saw the bruising.

"By the Goddess, Eurig! What happened to your arm!?!" She was incapable of running but was walking briskly towards him, even entering the water. She had a frowned look of concern.

"Milady, please, I am still naked!"