Lady Knight by L J Baker Read Free Book Online Page A

shoulders and stood up to her knees
in mud outside a peasant’s hovel. Conscious of not wanting to stare, Riannon
risked only the most fleeting of glances at the lady’s face before fixing her
attention beyond her horse’s ears.
    “In such weather, we should make good time today,” Eleanor said. “Do you not
think, Lady Riannon?”
    “Yes, lady,” Riannon said.
    After a pause, Eleanor said, “And the road is in an excellent state of repair.
Let us hope that more than half my pottery survives this leg.”
    “Yes, lady.”
    “Entertainment is an excellent way to pass a long and tedious ride, do you not
agree? And what could be more agreeable than rich conversation?”
    “Yes, lady.”
    For the next mile, Riannon responded to Eleanor’s bland remarks about the
weather, the countryside, the state of crops, and all manner of commonplaces.
The road wound through a checkerboard of arable land thick with ripening oats
and vetch, and forests resplendent in greenery. In places, the hedges and
undergrowth needed severe cutting back where they encroached on the road and
could provide plentiful cover for brigands. Not that so large a party as theirs
need fear ambush or attack.
    Happily, the ford their horses splashed across proved wellmaintained and would
be no major obstacle to the carts and carriages. Riannon had asked the marshals
about the state of the bridges ahead and received reassurances that they need
not divert for want of a safe river crossing. The years of her exile left her
ignorant of all but the vaguest idea of the route they would travel north to the
central royal stronghold and city at Sadiston. What memories she retained were
coloured by her angry, violent rejection by her father and her desperate flight
away from the lands of her birth. She should have expected such unpleasant
thoughts would intrude as she neared the location of those scenes.
    “I’ve previously believed myself fortunate never to have experienced a siege,”
Eleanor said. “But I find myself now regretting the knowledge I might have
gleaned.”
    Surprised, and unsure she had heard right, Riannon turned to the lady. Eleanor
looked thoughtful, as if she worried a problem of gravest importance. Riannon
belatedly realised that the lady’s escort had fallen back. She and Eleanor rode
side by side out of anyone else’s hearing. The arrangement could not be
accidental and should not have been one she had been unaware of whilst lost in
her gloomy past. Riannon caught Eleanor watching her.
    “I’ve never had the privilege of meeting a lady knight before,” Eleanor said.
“I suppose that you know much about siege craft.”
    “Somewhat, lady.”
    “Pray be so good as to tell me, then, which is the more effective, the frontal
assault or encirclement?”
    Riannon cast a searching look at Eleanor and encountered only an expression of
quizzical interest.
    “The approach to any siege depends on many factors,” Riannon said. “The size of
your army. Morale. The quality and number of the opposing garrison. Their
stores. If there is a weakness in the defences that you can exploit. These are
but some of the considerations that weigh in your decision. Surely, lady, you do
not plan to go to war?”
    “Not a war. A single campaign. My army is small but, I flatter myself, not
without valour and determination. Though the defences I face are truly
formidable.”
    Riannon glanced sidelong. The lady’s eyes shone with amused challenge. Riannon
suspected she was being outflanked.
    “I suppose I could concentrate my artillery on the walls,” Eleanor said. “That
is an accepted method for battering down defences, is it not?”
    “Yes, lady. Have you ballistas or mangonels?”
    “Which is the more powerful? My weaponry is of no mean calibre.”
    Riannon grinned.
    “I shan’t accept defeat,” Eleanor said.
    “Perhaps, then, lady, you should offer to parley.”
    “Oh, I wish for more than just a brief discussion under flags of truce. My aim
is a