The Robber Knight's Protege

42 - The Robber Knight's Son

"Did you find her yet?" the duke asked Fye when she arrived at the tournament grounds in the morning.

"Good morning, sir," she said.

"Did you find her?"

Fye beamed, and she extended an eager hand, palm-up. "I have some information that I think you'll find very valuable, sir."

Glaring, he plopped a coin into her palm.

"More valuable than that, sir."

Another coin.

"Hmm..."

Another coin.

"Sir, I think I misunderstood how badly you want to find Dame Fye."

Muttering a curse under his breath, he grabbed a handful of coins from his purse and handed them to her.

Fye took her time inspecting each little piece of precious metal. Let the duke sweat it out for a bit. Ooh, that coin was especially shiny. Very nice. Very nice, indeed. Fye could buy her mother lots of presents with this money. Or she could buy another fancy dress; it never hurt to have a backup since she was so talented at ruining nice clothes.

"Where is she?" the duke growled.

"Oh, there's an inn not far from here. A few blocks east, milord. It has a painting of a woman with a big barrel of beer in her hand on the sign. Dame Fye, Sir Reuben, and Sir Xander are all staying there. But I don't know if you'll be able to get her alone to teach her that lesson you mentioned."

"Don't worry about that. You've played your part." He extended his arms. "Help me get my armor on. I face Sir Reuben with the sword in ten minutes."

A thrill went through Fye. How had she not known that Reuben would be facing the duke today? Barely swallowing a triumphant grin, Fye did as the duke instructed, strapping on his armor. She was tempted to make the straps loose so he might lose part of his armor during the fighting, but she fought back the urge. Duke Augustus was the cheater, not Fye.

As soon as Duke Augustus was on his way toward the sword ring, Fye let her emotions loose. She bounced on her toes. This was it. It was only the sword portion of the tournament, yes, but it was Sir Reuben's first chance to make the duke regret what he had done. Lady Salvatrice would regret after this, too.

Sir Reuben was going to win. He was Sir Reuben, after all.

She heard the names of Reuben and the duke being shouted by the onlookers. She tried to figure out which of the men had more supporters, but the crowd was too noisy for her to decide anything with certainty.

Xander was standing not far away, and she made eye contact with him for half a second. Then his smug grin made her body do funny things, so she had to look away before she got distracted. Right now was about Sir Reuben, not about things that had happened last night. Wonderful things that made Fye think that maybe having children would be all right if it meant she got to do that more often.

No, she wasn't thinking about that now. Nope, nope, nope.

She jerked her eyes back to Reuben and the duke as the herald gave them permission to begin.

Reuben lunged forward without hesitation, and Fye could hear his roar even above the noise from the crowd. It was a roar that would have made a lion run for its life. Not the duke, though. The duke was too stupid to run.

The two men moved in a dance of metal on metal that made Fye as excited as she was frightened. What if Reuben lost? No, he wouldn't lose. His form was perfect. Fye had never seen him move faster, with more precision, or with more power. She almost expected to see lightning bolts start to erupt from his sword.