Lancelot and the Wolf (6 page)

We rode at a walk but I maintained a good pace. I wouldn’t let Ash wander. I noticed other trees and flowers surrounding us, at one point we walked through a patch of wild garlic. The smell making all of us hungry.

“
There is bread in my saddle bags,” Else said quietly. I pulled Mercury toward me and raided his bags. We ate bread and some cheese, drinking water, as we rode.

Few words passed between us. I didn’t know what to say to Else the runaway girl. I’d known what to say to my squire, but I spent my time with women doing one of two things. Either doxies in taverns or women so far above my station in life it didn’t feel real. Else though, felt warm in my arms and incredibly small.

We approached a fork in the path once more. “We need to go right,” Else said pointing. Her arm trembled. The path looked a great deal darker than the one to the left.

“
I think we need to go into the light. If I need to stitch you up I need light to do it and this day isn’t getting any younger.” I turned Ash to the left fork.

Else put her hand on mine, “Please, Lancelot, go right.”

“
Why?” I asked.

“
Just trust me,” she said.

“
Why?” I repeated my tone more loaded.

She sighed. “You are still angry with me.”

“
I just want to find you somewhere safe to stay. We will be safer if we are separated.” The words spilled from me roughly. Else made me a criminal and then she lied to me. Another woman in my life played games like that and I did not wish to repeat the experience. My freedom from trouble is all I really wanted. Women came and went. This one made my heart ache and my loins tighten, but I knew how to control those sensations.

“
You are going to leave me?” she asked.

“
You have a better idea?” I didn’t want an answer. “This has made a mess out of both our lives. If I leave you somewhere safe, we have a chance. I’ll lead the sheriff away but that’s all I can do for you.”

“
She really did a number on you didn’t she?” Else growled quietly. Then more strongly, “Go right, it will lead us somewhere safe.”

“
How do you know?” I bit each word off. She had no right to judge me. I suddenly wanted Else gone from my arms.

“
Because I have lived near here,” Else snapped in return. She struggled, no longer relaxed against me, trying to assert her separation. I allowed it to happen. The loss of her warmth felt like the loss of the sun in a desert, issuing in an ice cold night.

I decided I didn’t want any more detail. We rode down the right fork into the darkness of the forest. The ground and the trees grew mossy. The air became damp and heavy. Large rocks rose around us, further cutting off the light and filtering us through deep crevasses. At one point Else tilted crazily in the saddle and I realised she’d exhausted herself with her small act of defiance. I pulled her back against my chest and held her gently as we walked onward. The forest became still and quiet. It really reminded me of my dreams. I wished I’d left Else at the fork in the road and gone my own way.

My thigh started to feel damp. I looked down, blood stained my leg, “Else, we need to make camp. You need to be stitched up. You’re bleeding again.”

She didn’t reply. I twisted her in my arms, she’d sunk into unconsciousness. We had to stop. A small stream crossed our path. I rode Ash and Mercury off the track and draped Else over Ash’s neck as I slipped off his back. I reached up and pulled her down, she lay in my arms. So empty, so still. Her pulse fluttered in her neck. I lay her down on the mossy floor of the bank near the stream and made camp. It took a long time. I felt stiff and tired. It had been a long couple of days. I finally gave up with the mail shirt and shrugged it off. I realised I’d been bleeding, my back having split once more due to the pressure I’d placed it under. It just made me feel more weary.

I started a small fire, but it spat fitfully, the wood damp. I collected fresh water and untacked the horses. They wouldn’t wander far and I had to let them find some food. I wished them luck I’d not seen anything to eat for hours.

I finally realised I could delay no longer. I had to help Else. I hate stitching people up. It’s far easier to put holes in them than repair them. I retrieved a small kit from my bag and approached Else. She looked so small, lying still in the dark light of the forest. I took my knife, washed it and my hands in the stream. I had a small flask of brandy in my bag, so after one quick swig, I poured some of that over the blade of the knife. Keeping wounds clean is always hard, but the good Sister in England left me a large pot of her healing cream so I’d use that for afterward.

I took the knife and simply cut through Else’s clothing, then the makeshift bandage. Blood no longer seeped it flowed as I worked. I poured the rest of the drink into her wound. She roused briefly but settled back into unconsciousness. A long strip of bone winked at me through her muscle and flesh. Rolling her onto her side, I started work. I tried to keep the stitches close together and small to help the scarring. She woke once or twice, but hardly seemed aware of my efforts on her behalf.

It took forever to finish and dress her wound. How she’d managed the day we’d had with a hole in her that size I didn’t know, her strength seemed endless. Once I finished I woke her to make her drink. We managed a little water but she didn’t really seem aware. The afternoon drew to a close. I tried to keep the fire going and find food. Neither worked well but the horses remained nearby and calm. I finally decided sleep would be a good idea. I knew I should sit on guard, but equally, if I didn’t sleep I’d make mistakes. I left Ash in charge of our small camp. Else shivered in her delirium, so I took both our bedrolls, curled up around her and dived into sleep.

The dream came up slowly, unlike every other time I’d taken the shape of the wolf. I lay before the hind, who slept. I stood and paced around her. The hart, his antlers low walked toward me, we touched noses as though we had loved each other for a long time. A woman, a tall woman with long brown hair, the same shade as Else’s came forward. She was beautiful, regal, slim and elegant. Both I and the hart bowed before her, she smiled and the world became lighter. She crouched before us and stroked our heads. It felt as though I’d been kissed by a goddess. She walked to the doe and I rose to go with her, she looked so sad as she tried to wake the animal. Grief broke inside my heart and soul.

I woke, weeping, curled around Else’s still form. Dawn had come.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“
Lancelot,” came a soft voice. I already knew who would be standing before me. I uncurled from around Else. She stood there, the woman from my dream, for the first time I noticed her eyes. Deep blue, startling and slightly shiny.

I moved slowly away from Else and placed my hand on my sword. The leather hilt a comfort. “Who are you?”

She smiled, “I am Else’s sister.”

“
That doesn’t mean a great deal because I don’t know who she is,” I said. Ash looked as though he were asleep, some guard he turned out to be.

The woman laughed, a light sound, it made my belly feel warm, which made me nervous. “Else is strong, Lancelot, but she is dying in your arms.”

That shook me. I glanced down to my companion. Her lips were blue.

I rolled her onto her back and she felt cold and still. The woman was right, Else was dying. “This shouldn’t be happening,” I whispered. “She can’t have lost that much blood.” The world began to fall a long distance from this moment.

“
She hasn’t,” the woman said as she knelt on Else’s other side. I glanced up at her, my sword forgotten. She looked sad. I found myself overwhelmed by sorrow. If Else died, I would be heartbroken. I knew it like I knew my name. Like I knew my crimes. Like I knew the number of lashes on my back.

“
What can I do?” I asked those perfect blue eyes.

“
Love her, Lancelot. She has given you her heart and you don’t know what it is worth. You wish to reject her to protect yourself.” The gentle chiding in her words were blades being buried in my gut.

“
I cannot love her,” I said. “I love no one.” Those words made sense. Yesterday I reminded myself, I wanted to leave this creature in the woods and ride on alone. I did not want romantic entanglements. A squire I needed and would act as a balance to my morose loneliness, but a woman? No, I did not need a woman. I shook my head trying to clear a leaking, sneaking fog.

“
Yes, you do,” the woman said and it seemed as though I’d been shoved into the centre of a hurricane.

My need to escape this madness left me dizzy but locked in place. The world took on the soft hue of dawn, the colours of pink and orange staining the forest floor through the green leaves. Mist rose as the world warmed to the day. The deep green wood held me in its spell.

I stared at Else, her small elfin face at peace. Whispered voices overrode my struggling instincts. My thoughts turned and dived, shifting away from my control like river eels on a hook. Did I love her? Even when I’d thought her a boy I had wanted to bed her. She made me ache with desire and have some fevered dreams I didn’t want to consider now. I enjoyed her company and admired her spirit. The determination she’d displayed when under pressure of capture had given me great pride, but she’d lied to me from the moment we had met. And now this mysterious woman claimed to be her sister.

“
She lied to me,” I said.

“
She wanted to protect you. She knows you have a deep wound in your soul. She did not want to add to your burdens, but now she needs you. If you do not love her, she will fade and die. It is the way of our kind.”

“
I need time,” I said.

“
There is no time, Lancelot. A few more moments and her heart will stop. Just one kiss. The kiss of life. That is all she needs.”

I glanced up, “Just a kiss? I don’t understand.”

“
You don’t need to. Just one kiss will be enough to begin her healing. Just one kiss, Lancelot, Knight of Camelot.”

“
I am no longer a knight,” I said bitterly.

“
You will always be a knight of Arthur’s Court.”

I didn’t even question how she knew. As the dawn light hit us through the deep green of the leaves over our heads, I took Else in my arms.

“
Just one kiss?” I asked.

She nodded.

“
What harm can a kiss do?” I asked myself. I thought about it often enough after all. I lifted her and lowered myself. Her breath whispered over my lips, her eyelids fluttered.

“
Lance,” she hardly made a sound but I heard my name. She suddenly felt so warm and safe against my chest. I wanted to hold her forever. I had to hold her forever.

I kissed her. I had never been so tender, so gentle. A small shock zapped my lips and I found my mouth pressed hard against Else’s, my tongue seeking entrance to her body. Her mouth opened. Her hands moved around my back and neck. She responded. The kiss deepened. Something profound slid out of me and into the small body in my arms. The exploration grew more desperate. I felt as though I had dived into my companion and I’d begun to drown.

Else drew back, “Stop, love. I need more time,” she smiled, lay her head on my chest and seemed to sleep.

I looked at the woman, “What’s happened to her?”

“
She is healing. You need to come with me. I have a safe place for you and the horses where you will not be hunted.” The woman stood and walked to Ash. He stirred and bowed his head to her hand, just as the white hart had, just as the wolf had done.

I rose. I didn’t even consider packing my things or tacking the horses. They simply fell into step behind me while I meekly followed the woman.

“
Where are we going?” I asked as we wove between vast oak and ash trees along a path I’d never have found alone.

“
Somewhere safe,” answered the woman.

“
What’s your name,” I realised my world had grown softer, less well defined. It didn’t seem to matter.

“
My name is irrelevant,” came the reply. “Else is all that is important.”

I frowned, knowing this was not a good reply but unable to argue my opinion. I tried another question, “What is this place?”

She glanced back at me and smiled. I realised her teeth were slightly pointed at the ends. “A safe place for you to rest, Sir Knight.”

Before Else grew heavy in my arms we arrived at the edge of a stream. I thought it must be the one I’d camped near. All our things lay in a pile beside the entrance to a cave. The stream came from the cave and formed a pool before babbling on its way.

“
How did that get here?” I asked.

“
My friends brought your things. We want to keep you comfortable.”

“
What friends?” I asked.

“
These,” she waved her hands and suddenly the air stirred over the pool of water and hundreds of small bright lights appeared in the dimness of the woodland light. The world sparkled and shone. They danced and wove, a small chittering, like tiny church bells filled the air with harmonies. I smiled in honest joy, tears rose in my eyes for their beautiful dance.

“
Come, Lancelot, bring my sister,” the woman beckoned. She stepped with confidence onto moss covered stones, which made the stream race in tight formation to escape the coolness of the cave.

I followed her, careful of my footing but I didn’t slip once. Else remained safe in my embrace. The cave widened swiftly inside the entrance and I suddenly found myself in a home. An area to my right contained a hearth, a low table and pelts to sit on, with rough rock walls on one side and the stream on the other. Natural light filtered into this part of the cave from the entrance. I looked back and all I could see were the trees, almost as though they conspired to hide the cave from the whole world.