An Uncertain Choice

As one of the guards lunged at Derrick, he rapidly beat him away with the axe head and then fended off another blow with the sharp spear-like tip of his weapon.

My breath caught in my chest and I turned away, unable to watch him fall to his death.

At that moment, my gaze landed on Trudy, whose agonized eyes begged for release from her pain.

One look at the abbot told me he was distracted by the skirmish. If I hoped to free Trudy, now was my chance. I couldn’t delay.

Before the abbot tried to stop me, I stood and made my way to my nursemaid. Even though my hands were bound, my fingers were still free. With the grunts and cries of the battle taking place behind me, I resisted the temptation to crumple to my knees and cry out in dismay at the sight of the contraption on Trudy’s face.

Instead, I found the leather strap and latch at the back of Trudy’s head that held the torture instrument in place. With shaking fingers, I fumbled for it. At the barest movement, Trudy gave a guttural, animal-like cry of pain.

“Our Father who art in heaven,” I whispered while swallowing screams of my own. I wanted to back away, to hide, to pretend this was all just another nightmare. I wasn’t sure that I could face my fears so fully.

A roar sounding much like Derrick’s voice came from the battle, jarring me and reminding me that he was facing twelve armed guards. He’d come to rescue me. If he could defy death itself and fight so valiantly, surely I could stand strong too.

Trudy’s entire body shook, and I moved faster.

“You’ll be fine in just a moment,” I crooned, fighting back tears. “You’ll be fine, my sweet, sweet Trudy.” My fingers tangled with the latch as I desperately tried to loosen it.

In one last agonizing moment, the contraption slipped free and the metal fell away from Trudy’s mouth. It crashed to the floor with a clang. With my bound hands, I caught her against my body and eased her to the floor. She buried her face into my chest, her body heaving with sobs.

Another cry rose above the clanking of swords.

I peered to the circle that had crowded ever closer to Derrick. From the bodies sprawled on the floor near him, he’d apparently already taken down four soldiers. But that left eight.

He wielded his halberd and spun with a deftness and sureness that showed him as the superior knight he was. I could imagine that this was how he fought on the battlefield, how he’d earned a distinction as one of the three noblest knights in all the realm.

He fought off one blow while ducking to avoid another. But how could he carry on indefinitely? He already had a bloody patch on his leg. Just at that moment, the tip of a sword grazed his arm, and in an instant a crimson spot seeped into his tunic.

“Stop!” I called, but my throat was too constricted with anxiety and my words came out breathlessly. Derrick lunged with the halberd’s hook, grappling and felling one more.

Even so, the circle around him grew tighter. The guards advancing on him moved in for the kill, until he was completely helpless with seven remaining swords pressed against his body and ready to plunge.

“Drop your weapons,” the abbot called to Derrick.

Through the danger of the sword tips digging into his skin, Derrick’s gaze sought mine. Across the distance, the blaze in his eyes consumed me, went deep into my soul, and reassured me that he’d done this for me.

He loved me. I could see the message shining there.

“I love you too.” I mouthed the words, praying that if he couldn’t read my lips, he would see into my heart and know the truth of my undying affection for him. I would never love anyone else again.

As if my words had traveled the distance and entered his heart, he gave a renewed cry, ducked beneath the circle of swords, and chopped at the legs of the guards surrounding him with the halberd’s axe head, causing them to fall back.

My heart surged with fresh hope, but it was immediately doused as the abbot’s boney fingers circled around my neck and dragged me forward. His grip was hard and unyielding.

Trudy fell away, crumpling to a heap on the floor, her eyes dull with pain, her mouth a bloody, swollen mass.

“Drop your weapons this instant,” the abbot called, “or I shall start slicing the face of her ladyship, one slice for every slash you make at my guards.”

The icy steel of a knife pressed against my throat.

Immediately, Derrick pulled himself back. “Don’t harm her.” His voice was laced with panic.

“I like how this works,” the abbot said, thrusting the knife all too close to my skin so that it pricked painfully. “In fact, I think I’m going to like my new position of power very much.”

“So you freely admit you’ve been undermining Lady Rosemarie’s efforts to find true love. That you’re the one who sabotaged my companions.”