Week 12 Story:Lady Knight

Ana had always wanted to be a knight. She'd grown up hearing her grandma Britomart's stories of her time as knight, all the adventures she'd had and the people she'd met, and every tale filled Ana with longing to have some of those adventures for herself. Britomart always wanted to talk about the lovey parts of the story, and how it was really only for love that she'd set out as a knight in the first place, but Ana didn't care about any of that. She wanted to hear about the daring rescues and fights, not about how her grandparents met.

It wasn't hard for Ana to convince her father to let her learn how to fight growing up, especially not after her grandma agreed that she should be taught. So when Ana finally decided that she couldn't live another day without going on an adventure of her own, she was confident that she would be able to make her way as a knight.

Ana told her grandmother that she had seen a knight who would be her own future husband in the magic mirror, and that she must set out to find him at once. If Britomart was suspicious of Ana's sudden interest in love when she'd been nothing but indifferent to it before, the old lady kept those suspicions to herself. She gave Ana her magic spear and helped the younger woman get ahold of some armor and sneak out of the castle.

The first few weeks of Ana's time traveling as a knight didn't quite live up to her expectations. Adventures, it seemed, were not as easy to find as they had been during Britomart's time, and it was no longer the custom to have a friendly fight with any knight you happened to come across.

Eventually Ana did find what looked to be the start of a promising adventure. Riding into a clearing, she discovered a knight weeping outside of a derelict tower.

"What is wrong?" Ana asked the knight.

"The lady I love is locked inside this tower," the knight answered. "I cannot reach her. Whenever I try to go through the door, a mighty flame springs up in my way. I fear that my love has become the prisoner of some foul sorcerer."

Ana remembered one of her grandmother's stories, of a lady trapped in the same manner. She wondered if that same magician could still be at large after all these years. It really didn't matter if it was the same man or not. Either way, Ana would defeat him and rescue the lady in danger.

"You should not give up so easily," she told the other knight. Then, remembering her grandma's story, Ana held her shield in front of her and walked resolutely toward the door.

As she approached, flames sprang up in her path. Ana ignored them and continued walking forward. The flames did not burn her at all, and she walked easily through the threshold.

The inside of the tower looked nothing like the outside. From without, it looked long abandoned and on the verge of collapse, but inside it was apparently in good condition. Ana climbed up a staircase which was as sturdy as if it had been built the day before and well lit from sconces set regularly into the wall. When Ana looked into one of these, she saw not a candle but a floating orb of light. Clearly the sorcerer was still here.

Ana reached the top of the staircase, and found a closed door. Holding her shield in front of her with one hand and readying her sword in the other, Ana kicked down the door.

A beautiful lady who had been sitting and reading shot to her feet at Ana's sudden entrance. The lady didn't look hurt, or sick, or like she was being held captive at all.

"Who are you?" the lady asked. "How did you get in here? My fire should have burned any man who tried to enter."

"Your spell?" Ana asked.

The lady scowled. "Yes, my spell. Which is why I'm interested in how you got passed it. Has my magic begun to fail."

"No, it has not." Ana pulled of her helmet. "The spell didn't stop me because I am not a man."

The lady's eyes widened. "Why have you come here?"

"The knight outside seemed convinced that you were being held captive by an evil magician, so I thought I'd help. Clearly that's not the case."

The lady looked offended. "Me. the sorceress Minerva, captured by some magician? That's ridiculous. I locked myself in here because that knight would not stop declaring his love for me and demanding we be married, no matter how many times I told him I wasn't interested. I really didn't want to kill him, so I thought I'd just go where he couldn't follow until he gave up. But it's been weeks, and he's still out there waiting."

Ana frowned. "That is unacceptable behavior. If you said you weren't interested, he should respect that. Stay here, I'll go fight him for you."

"Lady Knight," Minerva called. "Not that I doubt your ability, but it might be easier if I simply used a spell to put him to sleep so we can leave. I would have done it before, but I didn't think I would be able to get far enough away before he woke up and followed me. If we left on your horse, we could put some good distance between us and him while the spell holds."

"I would rather fight him."

Minerva shook her head. "He fights unfairly and is a coward. Wouldn't it be better to let me take care of him so you can fight a more worthy opponent? And besides, while I appreciate the offer, I would like to take care of him myself. He has been vexing me for nearly a year now."

Ana nodded. "Very well. If you feel you must defeat him, I will not stand in your way."

And so Minerva placed the other knight in a magical slumber, and she and Ana rode away together. As they rode, Minerva said to Ana, "If you're still looking to fight some villains and rescue someone, I know of a town nearby that has been harassed by the undead for years."

Ana smiled. It seemed like having company might make life as a knight more interesting.

                                                       (Joan of Arc by Harold Piffard)


Author's note: Britomart is a princess who becomes a knight in order to find the knight she's supposed to marry, according to a magic mirror made by Merlin. One of her adventures as a knight involved rescuing a lady from a sorcerer who'd locked her behind a gate of fire. It was never explained why Britomart could walk through the fire and the male knight she was with at the time couldn't, so I decided for this story to have the spell be gender specific since the lady in question wanted to get away from an overly persistent suitor. I also wanted my protagonist to want to be a knight for the adventure, not because she wanted to find a husband.