The Red-Haired Knight Ch. 03

The Red-Haired Knight 03

The Red-Haired Knight and The Other World

Part three of the Red-Haired Knight saga.

Malle's actions were well on the way to solidifying her reputation as a witch. Her manic grieving for her martyred husband and sons had transformed into an intense coldness.

She showed no emotion at the funeral rites, which were performed the very day, the afternoon of their assassinations. She wore her dark-green gown with an ivory over-vest trimmed in gold embroidery, her head covered, and her face veiled in a wimple and mask...her signature red locks covered. Her feet were bare to communicate with the Earth Mother.

The bodies of her lover husband and her sons were washed, the wounds covered or crudely disguised with clay. Their burial garb, but a celebratory white gown, with a purple sash. Their swords, cleansed of the assassins' blood, were in their hands.

They would be buried together, as comrades in battle are.

The folk from all around, as many as could make the journey, gathered to see the end of their Lord and by extension, the rule of a new Lady.

The hymn of the Valley was sung: "There is no finer valley than ours, we will defend her from all foes." A thousand or more voices joined in.

The Lady of the Valley let it be known that there would be no eulogy...she would speak to them in the great gathering at her estate...now hers alone the next day.

No calls for vengeance...no one knew what would happen. But the death of a Lord and his sons at one swoop in a violent matter, meant ominous days ahead, dangerous days, and the people would pay a high price for the arguments of Lords.

The hymns were sung 'til sunset...then the graves were filled, and the people were called to a funeral feast on Holy Ground. The caretakers of the Holy Ground would feed all, regardless of rank.

The Lady was there as proper, but she was silent and unmoved, she sipped her wine...sipped a lot of wine, which had a trivial effect on her. Another reason for the people to marvel. As the moon rose in the clear night sky, the people found their way home by moonlight.

The Lady's retainers were around her protectively...an outer circle of men at arms with torches and an inner circle of the high-status women of the Valley.

Malle watched impassively as the moon reached its zenith...and with a subtle gesture, signaled that it was time for her to return to her estate.

The armed men with torches led the way and protected the flanks and rear of the column with the high-status women and the Lady in the center...all were barefoot in respect for the slain.

Malle would not return to the bed chamber she had shared with her Edward...that name alone, caused her to shed a small tear even as she merely voiced it in her head.

Malle retired to a small sitting room down the hall from her bedchamber with a view out to the bright, moonlit courtyard.

She had but one high-status woman with her now, the others returned to their homes and families. The men at arms took to their posts around the estate, out of sight, but vigilant.

Malle's companion was known as the wisest of the nobility in the valley, as 'wise' was understood at that time.

"Ecna...stay with me.... you know what I must do. Tell me, help me to do it correctly."

"My Lady, I do not get your meaning."

"Ecna, I have these things from the foul beasts who murdered my beautiful husband and sons." From under her gown, she displayed the twelve pouches of gold.

"My Lady, there is no magic in gold, the greed of all who touched this gold has contaminated it beyond magic."

"But, I also have this! From each beast (I knew real men; I cannot call them men)...I have some of their hair...beard is best, but some were youths and had no beards, so I took their lower 'beard.'

"Yes, my Lady...I know...there is talk in the valley...already...that you took more from these 'bodies' that you unmanned them and drank their blood."

Malle, at first, gasped that she was to be thought of thus, then laughed.

"It is well that these legends grow...the fear will sap the will of our enemies, or make them furious...and careless in attack."

"Indeed, my lady...it must be the wild dogs of the valley that did this to the beasts that took your family...the people love their scary tales."

"What you have, my Lady, must be burned, a coin from each pouch and the hair of the beast that soiled that coin. Twelve fires in a circle, the flames kindled from oak charcoal and dried swamp grass. I will supply the herbs needed to ease the conjuring.

"As the gold melts and the hair burns, their heat and smoke meet the spell of the herbs...You must inhale deeply and sleep...I will keep watch...those who sleep under this spell may come to harm, or harm themselves."

And so, a place was chosen...away from prying eyes, and yet secured by a ring of guards all sworn to secrecy...all threatened with the most horrible curse if they revealed the secrets of the night, or gazed upon the Lady when she was bewitched.

The time came...after the moon had set, but well before dawn...

Malle wore only her oldest, most patched shift. The ground where she lay was covered in fleece...her head was uncovered, her hair worn long and loose. She knelt on the fleece as the fires were lit.

The fires were small, but smoked pungently, the herbs were pleasant...but as the 'beasts'' hair burned...something evil entered her. A tremor of fear convulsed her body. "Ecna...give her a potion to sleep...to dream in the dream, to fight, to overcome evil."

It was a short, tortured sleep...she called the assassins' beasts, but a more terrible beast came to sleep with her. Ecna had covered her with a bearskin to warn off the night chill...But the Beast that joined her was huge and as hot as a furnace.

In her mind's eye, she saw what the keepers of the Holy Ground called a demon, but this was no imp of Satan, this beast far surpassed their descriptive powers. Like as a goat, as a human, as a male, yet also as a female, grotesque fleshy breasts erupting from a hairy, shaggy chest. Eyes enormous, green, and dragon-like. A sulfurous breath, and the tongue of a serpent. A voice like distant thunder, yet only heard in her mind.

She was striking a bargain! For a certain price, the BEAST would reveal to her all her enemies, and their secrets.

The price was horrible. Did she understand what was asked of her? She was blinded by her need for revenge...

A cold thing filled her...an icy appendage of the furnace beast...The coldness was unlike any that had entered her...it repelled her...and yet, in her greatest shame, she wished for it.

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