Prince Charming

Five days later, when the weather had improved slightly - it was still cold, but at least it wasn’t storming anymore - I said goodbye to everyone for the last time, mounted my short but sturdy mule, and set off. Lugh was with me; during my goodbyes he had been talking to the High Priest, looking all formal and serious, but once we were well under way he turned back to his cheerful, sunny self again.

It didn’t take him long to rediscover the fun of snow, and for a while, we didn’t really make as much progress as we could have made.

But, despite Lugh’s temper and the cold, it was an easy journey, and when the first day came to an end we were more than halfway through. Lugh found an old but comfortable shelter for me, and soon we had a fire going.

Lugh watched me eat – he does that as often as he can and as long as I’ll allow him to without getting itchy from his staring.

‘What’s it like?’ I asked him, trying to get him to look at something else rather than my mouth. ‘Rhavindha-City, I mean.’

‘Big. Crowded. It’s a city,’ Lugh said uninterestedly. ‘But you won’t be seeing too much of the city anyway. You’ll be staying at the palace.’ He frowned ponderously. ‘Though come to think of it, the palace is just as big and crowded as the city.’

‘Wouldn’t be a wild guess if I said you don’t like cities, then,’ I remarked, and he looked up, a sarcastic smile in his eyes.

‘How well you know me, my priest,’ he said. ‘But why curious? You’ll see it once you arrive. I think you might even like it, there.’

‘How would I know?’ I said, trying to sound cross but not entirely succeeding. ‘You’re the one not telling me what to expect.’

Lugh frowned again – but I could see the sides of his mouth twitch, and therefore was ready for what happened next. I braced myself as he pounced on me - although he still managed to knock the breath out of me - and managed to grab his hands before they could start on their mission to tickle me into death.

‘No fair!’ he complained, trying to wrestle loose.

‘See? I really do know you,’ I laughed. ‘Now will you promise me not to try to tickle me again when I let go?’

‘I’d pledge my life – but you’ve got my hands,’ Lugh said.

‘I’ll just do without that, then,’ I said, and let go. Lugh did not, as he promised, try to tickle me again, but I could see he was planning revenge. Not that that scared me; Lugh was always planning new exiting ways to tease me.

I looked at the darkness outside, realizing it was getting rather late.

‘Let’s go to bed now, that way we can be in Rhavindha-City by tomorrow afternoon,’ I said. Lugh nodded, too busy inside his mind to protest. I left him at his planning and went to bed.

The next morning, Lugh was nowhere to be found, but he had left a message for me that he was taking care of something, and he should be back by the end of the day. By this time, I was getting really curious as to what in the seven hells he was up to.

I packed up and continued my journey, though. I was due at Rhavindha-City after all, and Lugh would no doubt return once I was there.

After a few hours I came to a forest, blotted dark and white in winter cold and snow. A clear, wide path led through it, and I followed it. Father Galor had told me the road to Rhavindha-City was rather straightforward – just more or less right ahead – and so I ignored any small paths leading away from the main one.

It was very quiet in the forest; there was the soft, slight rustling of branches and a few frozen leaves in the wind, and the crushing of the snow under my mule’s hooves, but there was no evidence of any animals. They were probably all safely tucked away in holes and lairs to avoid the cold. I began to feel almost spiritual in this beautiful, peaceful, frozen forest, and I was ultimately grateful that Lugh wasn’t here to disrupt the quiet. Lugh after all is the sort of person who can never be still or silent, and he would really have ruined the peaceful atmosphere.

Suddenly, though, everything was not so peaceful anymore. I thought I heard the sound of horns down to the east, and all of a sudden the whole forest seemed alive and blazing in movement. Things rustled in the bushes, small and not so small, and I even thought I heard voices or the sound of hooves. It died down somewhat soon after, though, and I paid no further heed to it.

I was greatly surprised, therefore, when from the right side of the road came a racket so loud and sudden it scared the hell out of me, and from the foliage burst a growling monster in brown, red and black, frightening my mule so much she reared and threw me off. I almost got trampled beneath her short, sturdy legs when the red-brown creature was followed by a large pale-white horse, eyes wide and white with exertion and fear. It whinnied pitifully as it emerged from the trees, stumbled, fell and threw off its rider; a dark-haired young man in a dirty cloak. He fluidly rolled over, avoiding getting crushed by his horse, and got up to face the beast he’d been chasing.

I’d more or less got myself together, and lead my mule a ways away from the scene, prudently hiding behind her. She rolled her eyes, but did not rear again, and stood there like a fortress.

I took the chance to take a better look at the two adversaries in front of me. The beast was a huge swine with brown-black fur, huge yellow tusks, and covered in blood. A short shaft protruded from behind its shoulder blades, probably a part of a spear. The swine did not disappear into the trees on the other side of the road, but turned to its pursuer, teeth bared and gnarling, apparently having decided that this was the place and time where this was going to be resolved.

Its adversary, the rider, was eyeing it with determination, bent on killing it. His stance seemed insecure, though, and when he shifted I saw him flinch while putting his weight on his right leg. He was holding the remnants of the spear that had wounded the swine, and he threw it away and drew his sword instead. It was long and lean, and he held it with hands shaking from excitement, blood loss and exertion. Both of them totally ignored me, and for that I was infinitely grateful.

Suddenly, the swine growled and attacked. The rider quickly moved aside, surprisingly fluid for a man who seemed to be injured, and lashed out with his sword, injuring the swine. The beast came to a halt, turned around, and repeated his move, this time ripping the rider’s cloak in the process. Then they stood facing each other for a while, possibly both realizing that this was not really going to work. And then, as one, they both roared and attacked, the young man with his sword in both hands, aiming for the back of the swine’s neck; the swine with tusks raised for the rider’s stomach.

I barely dared to look, but found my gaze glued to the scene, unable to look away as the two collided. The rider, with his wider range, drove his sword into the swine’s scull before the beast reached him, but through the force of momentum and gravity his legs collided with the tusks. They collapsed on top of each other in the middle of the road, the swine grunting and heaving, but losing the fight quickly. The rider held on to the sword for a few seconds more, face contorted in pain, and then let go as the swine’s movements stilled, and collapsed.

I was trembling by this time, completely shaken from having witnessed such a violent scene. My mule had calmed down, sensing the swine was dead and no longer a threat. I was jealous of her ability to let go of things so easily.

On shaking legs, I hurried towards the rider. He was breathing, at least, and for that I thanked the gods – and my own in particular.

There was an awful lot of blood, though, both his and the swine’s, but most of it seemed to come from cuts on his legs. There was a long, deep one on his right calf, and an even deeper one on his upper leg. I suspected the lower wound had been suffered earlier, before they encountered me, and the higher wound from when they collided just now. In any case, it looked bad, and needed to be healed. But Lugh, being a god of mischief, had never bothered to give me some healing powers, and I even doubted that he could help the young man if I started praying real hard right now. The best thing I could do was try to stop the bleeding, and get him somewhere they might take care of him.

I ripped up his cloak, wiped some dirt and snow from it, and started to wrap it around his leg. He grunted and tried to protest, but I could easily stop him.

‘Don’t struggle,’ I said. ‘I need to stop the bleeding. It may hurt.’

‘No kidding,’ I thought I heard him say, but it was drowned in a moan when I tied the two ends of the cloth together.

‘Can you stand?’ I asked him. ‘I need to get you on my mule, but I can’t do it alone.’

‘I’ll… manage,’ he said, and, putting his arm around my shoulder, we managed to get up. I had to somewhat pull him out from under the swine, and that really hurt his leg, I could see, but there was no other way to do this.

Putting most of his weight on his good leg, and on me, we struggled towards my mule, who of course had not had the sense to come to us, and I knew she wouldn’t respond if I called her. Once we reached her, the rider got his left feet in the stirrup, and painfully swung his other leg over. Then, he sagged in the saddle, and I could see it was all he could do to stay in the saddle. I quickly joined him and wrapped my arms around him to keep him from falling off. He sagged against my chest with a grateful sigh, leaning his head against my shoulder. He was incredibly warm, and suddenly made me realize that I was very, very cold.

I looked down at him, at his unnaturally serene face, lined by dirty golden hair. His cheeks were flushed by the beginning of a fever, and his eyes moved behind the lids. I realized he was falling asleep, and that I shouldn’t let him.

While I nudged my mule to start walking, I tried to shake him awake a little bit.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked him, and he murmured something I couldn’t quite understand. It could have been anything from ‘Jack’ to ‘Eric’.

I kept talking to him, though, while we hurried through the forest. I needed to get him to Rhavindha-City as soon as possible, as alive as possible. I could feel him weaken, though, and was terribly relieved when we emerged from the forest and stood facing the city’s walls. I wondered where exactly I should take him, and decided to ask him where he lived. This time, I could hear his reply; he lived in the palace. He probably was the son of a nobleman, or a page, I reflected.

So I set out for the palace, which rose right in the centre of the city. On the streets, we were stared at by the few people that were out of doors, but none of them approached me. I did find out, as we progressed through the city, that quite a few people were following us. Who was this young man that the sight of him wounded in my arms drew so much attention?

When I reached the palace gates, apparently word of our arrival had traveled faster than us, and they were flung open as soon as we were in sight. People hurried out; soldiers, courtiers, and quite a few people in hunting clothes. They fussed around me and my mule, gently taking my burden from me and hurrying away with him. No one said but a word to me, and they completely ignored me when my charge was carried inside. So, within seconds, I was standing all alone in a courtyard, the gates having closed again and everyone else out of sight.

I dismounted, flummoxed at what just had happened. I looked around me, trying to find someone to talk to, when a young page approached me.

‘Are you the one who rescued his Highness?’ he asked me. He struck me as having trouble deciding whether he should look down on me with disdain, or look up to me in admiration because of what I had done.

That was the first thought that crossed my mind; the second was something like ‘His Highness… oh.’

‘Yes, that’s me,’ I said.

‘His Majesty would speak with you now,’ he continued at my confirmation.

‘Good,’ I said, ‘because I would like to speak with him, too. My name is Fustian, and I’m sent here to be Prince Jeric’s new scribe.’ The young page frowned a bit at that, but beckoned me to follow him; someone would take care of my mule and my belongings. However, I didn’t feel too comfortable about that, so I took my bag with me as we went inside, to see the king.