Earl Glennadoer yelled, “Do not think you can use such a dedication to urge softness from your enemies today, Hal Bolinbroke!”
The prince whirled rather grandly. “To think so would insult all of us, Glennadoer: What sort of honor would there be in playing half-assed?”
Glennadoer laughed, but angrily, and pointed. “We’ll see.”
Before the competitions began, a tall star priest emerged to offer a blessing on the field, invoking the names of the stars that had graced the horizon at sunrise, and led the Learish congregants in a prayer of compassion and togetherness under the zenith sun.
Then the first bout was called.
Belavias faced an Errigal retainer armed with a battle-ax and round shield. Wagers rippled around the crowd, and the queen lifted her hand to signal the start. The duke of Taria strode onto the field wearing a thick white belt to act as judge.
The sun shone down as the warriors met, glinting off plate armor. Hal did not let her attention waver, only smiled, standing with her arms crossed in the center of her team, but for Ter Melia who tended the horse she’d ride in the next competition.
At every clash of steel, Hal cheered or yelled, calling excited support out to Belavias. The yard of Dondubhan filled with noise, the familiar cries of a tournament, and Hal was transported to her youth and the glorious days of Rovassos’s grand tourneys. The melees, the single-combat challenges, the heady celebrations and weddings, the favors given, the exhilarating laughter. She sought Hotspur across the yard: the lady knight scowled. One of her fists twisted in her badly cut hair.
Taria yelled hold, citing a mortal blow—though it was only the appearance of such—in Errigal’s favor. Belavias cursed, but dropped his ax and tore off his helmet to growl congratulations at the retainer in wintry blue.
Sighing, Hal beckoned one of the page boys dashing past and gave him quick, specific instructions, then she strode onto the field to comfort Belavias. He groaned but was a good sport, and Hal clapped the Errigal retainer on the shoulder, pushing him toward the royal pavilion.
The queen stood to offer the Learish winner a cup of wine and a fine bracelet of hammered copper.
Retainers moved onto the field to reapply rushes and stamp down a few deep gouges in the mud made by the fighters. Others put up poles with rings attached and fences of various heights, and still others marked out a snaking path for the horses to run.
Hal backed up to her team and patted the already mounted Ter Melia’s thigh. The mare the knight rode was wide and strong, and stamped a gray leg very near Hal’s booted toe. Hal bumped her shoulder into the horse’s, laughing at the beast’s eagerness, and Ter Melia smiled, soothing her mount. All the while Hal kept her eye on Hotspur, and there, just as the duke of Taria began announcing the rules for the horsemanship competition, a page jogged up to Hotspur and offered her a thinly quilted hood, dark blue and designed for fitting under a helmet. Hotspur frowned as the page spoke fast, and then the knight gripped the hood in a fist, eyes snapping up to hunt for Hal.
The prince laughed and waved, and Hotspur glared, but the flat press of her lips was dear and familiar, and Hal knew she was amused. Hotspur gave the hood back to the page, and then turned to Sennos. The aide used a ribbon from his own hair to tie back some of Hotspur’s wild curls.
Ter Melia defeated Gelis of Hartfare, the queen’s master of horse, skewering all the loops easily despite the weight of her lance, commanding her horse perfectly, and did it all faster. Though Gelis was skilled, he did not carry himself with Ter Melia’s grace. On the dais Banna Mora herself smiled—though Ter Melia stood for Hal and Aremoria, she’d been one of Mora’s knights once.
At the break, while retainers set up archery targets and dragged huge logs onto the field for the test of strength, Hal wandered to Vae Lear and accepted a small cup of watered wine. She picked, too, at the candied meat Vae offered: it would be the only food Hal ate until after the sword fight, else she risk overfilling her belly.
“This is most entertaining,” Vae said in her soft way, pale brown eyes riveted to the retainers working in the field. “And it is tied for now. Do you think my brothers will win their bouts?”