One marshal walked away to signal the end of the bout while the other one nodded in agreement. “Understood, my lord,” he said. “You will not be given a loss, but a non-finish.”
That was almost as good as a victory. In any case, it did not go against his tournament record, so William would have to be satisfied. Standing next to the disappointed knight, Essien put his hand on the side of William’s head.
“Are you sure you are well?” he said. “That was a hard fall.”
William smiled weakly. “I am lucky to be alive,” he said. “I thought for certain I was going to be trampled by your horse, but you saved my life with your superior control of the beast. I am in your debt, Essien. Thank you.”
Essien smiled in return. “The next time I see you on the ground, I will charge right for you and make sure you are ground into a pulp,” he said, watching William chuckle. But thenhe noticed Paris standing next to him and, realizing they’d not really spoken since the exploding lance incident, narrowed his eyes at the fair-haired man. “And you—the next time you use an unsanctioned lance on me, I will beat you with it and throw your body in the river.”
Paris was unmoved by the threat. “What are you complaining about?” he said. “You are in the finals, are you not? Do not be ungrateful, al-Kort. My failure was your gain.”
He meant it, too. Greatly annoyed, Essien was about to throttle the man, but Peter pulled him away. He pushed him toward Ashton, who escorted Essien back to his horse, who was nervous and sweating from the unexpected incident. Peggy was a sensitive creature, and Essien patted the animal affectionately on the head, trying to comfort him. As the arena floor cleared, Essien and Peter led the horse back to the staging area to regroup for his final round. That left Rhys and Christopher standing in the middle of the arena, watching the marshals and a couple of carpenters struggle to repair the guide.
“It must have jarred loose when Essien’s lance struck it on the first pass,” Rhys said. “Did you notice that?”
Christopher nodded, watching the men hammer the post back into place. “I did, but I did not think much of it,” he said. “I certainly did not think it dislodged the pillar. Thank God a disaster was averted.”
Rhys agreed with him. “Indeed,” he said. “Thank God two excellent competitors were not compromised. Essien was gracious in his victory.”
“He was,” Christopher said. “He’s a well-respected competitor.”
“The little lad has certainly grown up,” Rhys said, looking off toward the staging area. “I must greet him and his brother at some point. I did not get the chance to do it last night, and theyare competing this morning, so I do not wish to distract them. I wonder if they’ll even remember me.”
“They will,” Christopher said. “You were one of the first people who found them starving on the side of the road those years ago. You changed their lives.”
Rhys waggled his eyebrows in a modest gesture. “They’d certainly had difficulty up until that point,” he said. “But I remember their story, how they fled their homeland of Kitara. In fact, that’s partially why I came to Lioncross. I had no idea that Essien and Addax would be here, of course, but I have a need to speak with you about something I discovered.”
“About them?”
“Possibly.”
David, who had been over looking at William’s horse, chose that moment to join them, interrupting the conversation.
“That was a hard fall,” he said to his brother. “William is fortunate that he can walk away from that. He’s fortunate that Essien didn’t stomp his head.”
Christopher nodded. “For certain,” he said. “Is the horse well?”
“Well enough,” David said. “He’ll be lame for a while, but he’ll heal.”
“Good,” Christopher said. Then he looked back at Rhys. “You were starting to say something about Addax and Essien? You discovered something about them?”
Rhys nodded. “I very well may have,” he said. “As I said, that is part of the reason for my visit here. I had business in London first and then went to visit Maddoc. I was planning on coming to Lioncross when Maddoc and David told me they were coming here also. I simply traveled with them.”
“I see,” Christopher said. “What is so important that you had to come all the way from Navarre to tell me?”
“A mystery, to be sure,” Rhys said. “It is not something I could put in a missive for fear it might fall into the wrong hands, so I had to come personally.”
“Now Iamintrigued,” Christopher said. “What is it?”
Rhys cast him an expression that suggested he’d better prepare himself. “This is going to sound like madness, I fear, so bear with me, because I do have a point,” he said. “The Dukedom of Navarre is strategic and there are several allied neighbors. One of them, who is particularly close to my brother, is a man named Etienne Lavaur. He has a rather large castle just south of my brother’s properties, and he breeds sheep and produces wine. The man has several ships moored south of Montpellier that take his wool and wine all over the great sea. He has traveled extensively. In fact, he has done so much business in Tripoli and Alexandria that he is friends with the sultan who rules Cairo.”
“Interesting,” Christopher said. “But what has that to do with the al-Kort brothers?”
Rhys started to reply, but he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Addax, astride his horse, rolling up to the west end of the arena. His helm was off, his long black hair glistening in the early morning light. He was next up, riding against Jonathan, so Christopher and Rhys and David began to move off the field.
“I think it may have everything to do with the al-Kort brothers,” Rhys said as they walked. “About a year ago, Lavaur returned from a very long journey overseas. He was gone for almost a year. When he travels, my brother sends men to help guard his lands, so that is how I know he was gone. When he returned, it was with a new wife and her parents. In order to thank my brother for protecting his lands, he had a great feast and introduced his wife and her parents to my brother. I was there, of course, because it was mostly my men who guarded his property, but the point is this—the woman he married and herparents are refugees from a country far to the east. When I asked the name of their country, I was told that it was called Kitara.”
They’d come to a halt by this point, back behind the rail where the other knights were lined up, awaiting Addax and Jonathan’s bout. But Rhys had Christopher and David pulled off to the side, in a huddle, as he delivered what was potentially important information. In fact, Christopher’s eyebrows rose as Rhys mentioned the name of the country.
