“How goes it, Ser Knight?” Adrian asked as he was walking up the hill when he saw Karl coming his way. He imagined the man must be on an important mission by the way he was walking so quickly, with a hand on his sword hilt as if he were ready to draw it. He had to twist sideways a few steps to keep from being run over by him as he passed.

  He watched as Karl stopped at the other side of Maud’s house. For a moment, he listened, hoping to hear what Karl and Maud were talking about, but the wind was carrying everything toward them. It was when he saw Karl looking like he was yelling that he decided to make his way to them.

  “…so, that’s it, you’re just going to leave?” Maud was crying. He could hear it in her shrillness.

  “What else can I do? If I’m dishonorably discharged, I can’t hold lands, you will never be anything other than a…” Karl stopped himself short and ran a hand through his dark hair.

  Adrian was a step past the edge of their porch. Maud saw him around Karl and turned upward and sideways. Karl looked over his shoulder to Adrian with a fierce glare. Adrian straightened.

  “This has nothing to do with you, move on, squire,” Karl waved him off.

  Adrian leaned to see what Maud wanted. By her expressions, he was unsure if he should move. Her eyes were red, her arms were tightly crossed over her chest, and her normally full lips were thinned and trembling.

  “Go,” Maud called to him. Then, to Karl, “I don’t need any of those things. I told you, I just wanted you. I’m just a farmer. All those things mean nothing to me. But if they’re so important to you, then go.”

  “She said go, boy,” Karl growled over his shoulder at Adrian. Adrian didn’t move.

  “Karl,” Maud reached for him, but Karl whipped around with his hand on his sword before she could catch him.

  “I said this has nothing to do with you,” He charged toward Adrian, who straightened. “Go your way!”

  Adrian didn’t move. Though Karl’s hand was on his sword, Adrian didn’t reach for his own on his back. He only eyed Karl, his face void of any expression. No smile, no creases in his brow, only a calm, fixed stare.

  “I’ve had enough of being looked down on today,” Karl barked at him, puffing his chest to make himself seem taller, though they stood eye to eye. Of course, Karl looked imposing in his armor and Adrian knew he looked tall and lanky without his. “What do you want, boy? You want to prove something for her? It’s you he really wants for her, isn’t it?”

  “Karl, enough,” Maud was out of the stable now, rushing toward them. “This has nothing to do with him. Adrian, go home. Karl, stop!”

  “This is who the King really wants for you, you know. His real ward. The little brat shows up and all of a sudden I’m cast out like horse manure. I lost everything. Everything,” Karl stepped closer, nearly to the point of bumping his breastplate into Adrian’s chest, but Adrian only watched his eyes, the vein on his neck for when it would bulge from him drawing that sword. “You probably don’t even know how to use it, do you?”

  “Will you just go home, Adrian? I can handle this,” Maud shouted.

  “You don’t want this,” Karl spat at him. Adrian was unmoved. He knew Karl’s hand was on his sword handle, ready to draw. “Listen to her, if you know what’s good for you.”

  Adrian made certain that their eyes met when he said, “I know your kind well, Ser Knight. As did my father. As does the King.” He took a long, calming breath, echoing disappointment through it. “Your worth has been weighed.”

  “What does he mean by that?” Maud stopped. “What did Draka say, exactly? Karl?”

  Karl’s mouth curled into a snarl. “That he saw us together. He knows about…us…and our…”

  Adrian could see the embarrassment on Maud’s face without turning his focus from Karl. Her hands covered her ducking face. Adrian’s eyes narrowed. Now, Adrian took a step back, I have reason.

  Karl tilted his head, moving into a fighting stance. “I see. You want to defend the King’s other ward’s honor now, do you?” He drew his sword.

  “Wait,” Maud shook her head. She went to Karl’s sword arm, but he pushed her away.

  “I’m not marrying you,” Karl huffed, a hint of disappointment in his tone. “He has every right.”

  “You’re not the man I thought you were,” Maud shook her head at him. “You’re really going to go? After everything? After us? After everything you said? You said you loved me.”

  Adrian circled to between Karl and her, his hands at his sides, and Karl followed with his sword aimed like a unicorn horn above his head, the classic high guard. Adrian put a hand out for Maud to step back from them. He heard her steps moving and saw her at the opening to the stable out of the corner of his eye while still watching Karl.

  Karl shook his head at him. “Draw your sword, squire. You want to defend her honor, do it properly!”

  Adrian stood still as a statue, waiting.

  “What is this?” Aurie called from the porch, followed by the slam of their door.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “The boy wants to defend your daughter’s honor,” Karl snarled at her. Then to Adrian, “Draw your sword, coward!”

  “Stay your weapon!” Aurie leapt from the porch between them. “Maudeline, why would he be defending your honor? Have you laid with him?”

  “No, mother,” Maud growled from the stable. “Though, maybe if I had, you and Draka might have allowed us to be married instead of sending him off in disgrace! He told me what happened.”

  “Draw! Your! Weapon!” Karl kept his stance.

  “You watch your mouth, young lady,” Aurie snapped at her. “Karl, sheath your sword. That’s an order.”

  “We only kissed,” Maud stomped. “That’s all. Never anything else. So, Adrian, there’s no reason for you to defend me. Go home. Karl, stop this, you’re being a child!”

  Adrian eyed Karl, waiting.

  “Sheath your sword,” Aurie’s growl deepened. “Or whatever the King has already put in place will be far less than what will happen to you next.”

  “Is it a proper duel or no, boy?” Karl eyed Adrian.

  Aurie whipped to face him, mouthing, ‘No.’

  Adrian took a fleeting glance at Maud. She was hesitant to answer.

  “If you will not marry Maud, then I must ensure her reputation is saved from your indecencies,” Adrian said with a weight in his voice, though there was no change otherwise in him. He looked to Aurie and whispered, “I’m sorry, but I must, or none will ever willingly take her hand again once they learn of him.”

  Maud took a step backwards, her eyes blank and hazed, aimed at her feet.

  Aurie nodded and stepped from between them.

  Karl’s face was red and his eyes burned with tears of his own. Adrian knew that the realization only now occurred to him what he had done.

  “To make this an equal dual,” Karl lowered his longsword and pulled his tabard from over his armor.

  Adrian took a handful of dirt from the road and rubbed it between his hands, “Leave your armor on, Ser Knight. It is the last day you shall have that honor.”

  Karl’s brow pursed together.

  “This is a Lord’s duel,” Adrian reached and drew his own sword from his back. The sight of a single edged, curved falchion sword made Karl stagger a little in his stance. “Not to the death, but submission.” He rotated his wrist, making the blade whirl, giving his arm a stretch. His eyes were fixed on Karl. Karl took up the high guard stance as before.

  “I’m sorry,” Karl said toward Maud.

  “I’m sorry, too,” Maud shook her head and went into the house, leaving Aurie standing alone, watching them with gaping frustration.

  Karl drew in a breath. His neck vein bulged. He moved for the attack. Adrian shifted his feet sideways, letting Karl’s downward swing go harmlessly past him. In a single, fluid motion, Adrian’s blade spun over Karl’s hand and whipped Karl across his face. Karl’s sword bounced to the ground while Karl stumbled the opposite way, clutching his bleeding cheek with a dripping hand.

  Aurie moved back to the porch, eyes wider than before. Maud had never gone fully inside, but was standing in the doorway, watching with the same dumbfounded, shocked expression as her mother.

  Adrian kicked Karl’s longsword across the dirt to him. He felt nothing, thought nothing, only watched as Karl shakily reached and lifted the sword in that hand whose back was split open and gushing blood. Karl took a different stance, a more defensive one with his blade crossing diagonally in front of him. Adrian nodded that he understood.

  Adrian didn’t lead like most swordsmen. He moved in flashes of jagged lines that sent clouds of dust upward where his boots caught traction until he was less than a pace from striking. Karl swung and, as Adrian took to the air, their blades met. Adrian’s sword was aimed downward, braced flush over his hip and side, rising upward as he leapt high with one knee lifted.

  That bent knee struck Karl’s face with a loud crack. The longsword twisted and floundered away. Adrian smoothly slid the falchion blade around his one shoulder, across his back, and over his other shoulder as he came down. The boot of his bent knee landed beside Karl, the other boot on Karl’s chest, pressing him onto his back. The single, curved razor edge of his falchion stopped barely a hair from cutting Karl’s face in two.

  “I yield,” Karl looked up to him, trembling in awed fear.

  Adrian still hadn’t moved his eyes from Karl’s as he hovered his blade over his face. His expression was still unchanged. Void. Emotionless. Finally, he said, just above a whisper, “You tell anyone of your relationship with her in any way that brings her dishonor, insult her, or insinuate that she is anything other than an honorable woman whom you attempted to dishonor and was rebuked for, and I will cut you apart, piece by piece, beginning with your genitals and tongue, until you are so unrecognizable that even in final judgment the Almighty will have your name called twice to be sure.”

  Karl nodded. “Her honor is protected,” he said.

  Adrian stepped away from him and wiped the few drops of blood from his blade across his thigh before sheathing it with one hand. He faced Karl, still without expression, and watched him climb to his feet. There was a nod between them. Karl turned to Maud. His mouth opened to say something.

  “Don’t look or speak to her again unless she approaches you,” Adrian said coldly, “And only in the presence of a Paladin appointed by her Guardian.”

  The look Karl gave him was one pleading to live. But he was unmoved.

  Loud enough for Aurie and Maud to hear, Adrian said to Karl, “She chose you. You chose yourself. Shame on you.”

  “You don’t know what was asked of me,” Karl shook his head. “I would be nothing. No lands, no life, nothing.”

  Adrian was still unmoved. “You would have been her husband.”

  Karl let out a long sigh as he sheathed his own sword and thinned his trembling lips. “That wouldn’t be enough and you know it.”

  That—Adrian saw and heard—was enough to send Maud crying into the house.

  “You really are something,” Aurie shook her head at Karl as she followed Maud and shut the door behind her.

  Karl looked more sunken than before. He cradled his sliced hand and hung his head. His eyes met Adrian’s cold gaze and he shrank more.

  “I’m sure you would say you’d never be in my boots, but if you were,” Karl pressed, “You’d do the same.”

  Adrian’s face finally softened. “I’d be her husband.” And he turned toward the house up on the hill, leaving Karl staring after him, gaping.

  The front door latched shut.