Chapter 3

"By the way, your mention of festering has reminded me of the pain that Lord Bushton must be suffering. Take this and administer it to him at the rate of two drops in a cup of wine whenever the pain hits him. It cannot cure him, but it will alleviate the pain and make it possible for him to attend and enjoy the wedding."

"Thank you Granny Eltman. How much do I owe you for the medicine?"

"Take the medicine as a small part of my participation in the great fight that we are facing. I will have more things for you later on, and you will pay me for them by the way you conduct the war that we have stumbled into. Now go. I fear that you are needed elsewhere."

I left Granny Eltman with a bow, and returned to Rolf and the horses. "Come, Rolf, we must hurry back to Blakeslee Keep. Granny Eltman says that we are needed there."

It took an hour of riding at our best speed to reach Blakeslee Keep, and it appeared that we were just in time. A band of 15 of the King's soldiers were there demanding to be allowed entry to the Keep. The Captain of the Guard was preventing their entry, but it was about to come to blows when I arrived. I asked in my most authoritative voice, "Captain Morley, what is going on?"

"Ah, My Lord Geoffrey, I am greatly relieved to see you. I was just trying to explain to Capt. Holson, here, why I could not allow armed men to enter the Keep. Perhaps you can make him understand."

"Capt. Holson, why are you here with an armed troop? Blakeslee Keep is not in rebellion and has paid this year's taxes in full, so, why an armed troop of the King's men?"

"Who are you, Sir Knight?"

"I am Sir Geoffrey Armbrewster, son of Agard Armbrewster, of Springfeld Keep. Lord Bushton was wounded in battle a few days ago, and I was asked to take over administration of Blakeslee Keep until he regains his strength. Now, please answer my question."

"Very well, Sir Geoffrey. You have already answered the main reason why I was sent here. The King's Council was notified that Blakeslee Keep was no longer being held by Lord Bushton, and I was sent to verify this. These soldiers are with me for the obvious reason that it is unsafe to travel without armed protection.

"Now that you have shown to be running the Keep while Lord Bushton is recovering, there is no further need for my presence. Therefore, I will bid you have a good day and leave."

"Hold, Capt. Holson. You and your men cannot be turned away with such an affront to the laws of hospitality. Please tarry with us long enough for a hot meal and some wine. Certainly, your horses need to rest. It is just past noon, and you surely should be fortified for you return to the capitol. King's Home is much farther away on an empty stomach!"

"Ah, Sir Geoffrey, your words are a true balm to my empty stomach. I will take great delight in accepting your hospitality for me and my men. Thank you very much for your courtesy."

"Capt. Holson, I hope that you will not be insulted if we eat in the informal dining room. Lady Bushton is visiting at Springfeld at the moment, so I try to keep the formalities to a minimum in her absence."

"No problem at all. I am sure that she appreciates the way you husband the Keep's resources by not overdoing a simple meal. Not only that, it reinforces your statement about Lord Bushton's relative health. Surely, the Lady would not leave her husband if he were seriously injured. You, Sir Geoffrey, appear to be a man of remarkably good sense, and I feel lucky to meet you. Now, if you please, my men and I would like an opportunity to shed our armor and get out of the hot sun."

"Capt. Morley, please escort these good soldiers to the informal dining room and order a suitable meal for them. I will join you as soon as I pay my respects to Lord Bushton."

Capt. Morley bowed and led the King's men away to get comfortable and to eat. Rolf said, "My God, Geoff, that was smoothly done! I was sure that we were headed for serious trouble. You just made Capt. Morley a winner by doing his duty, Capt. Holson a winner by explaining why he did not need to see Lord Bushton, and you a winner by making a friend at court. Dammit, I wish that I were that smart!"

I laughed and said, "You don't have to be smart if you are lucky enough!" Frankly, I was happy that things turned out the way that they did. Undoubtedly, this should allay fears at court about Blakeslee Keep, and keep things quiet until after the wedding.

I hurried up the steps to Lord Bushton's sick room. Elbert greeted me with the news that nothing had changed in here. I gave him the potion from Granny Eltman with her instructions and told him that a meal would be sent to him. I also told him about the noise he had heard at the front gate and how we worked that out. He breathed the same sigh of relief that we all had and settled down to wait for his lunch.

I rushed to the informal dinning room to join our guests. I apologized for being so slow to return, but I explained that there were several matters that I had to discuss with Lord Bushton. I told Capt. Holson that Lord Bushton sent his greetings, but he was too tired from our discussion to have Capt. Holson visit him. The apology was graciously accepted, and we talked about trivialities until everybody had eaten, and the troops were ready to leave. I made sure that they had plenty to eat and drink so that they would be in a good mood when they left the Keep.

Elbert was relieved at 4:00 PM by Rolf, and Elbert went to look over the prospects among the maids. He was on the prowl because he was bored to tears sitting with Lord Bushton, and he was going back on duty at 8:00 AM when he relieved me.

I had originally intended to write a detailed message to Father explaining what Granny Eltman had said, but I changed my mind when I realized that the information was too sensitive to be trusted to a written message that might be taken by our enemies. I decided to err on the cautious side, at least until I found out who our enemies were.

Instead, I simply wrote a note saying that I would visit Springfeld Keep tomorrow, and I hoped that he could spare me some time for a conference. That should get Father's attention since I had never before asked him for a conference. Late that evening, I received a message that he would visit me at Blakeslee Keep because he needed an excuse to escape the wedding preparations. That sounded like a fabricated excuse similar to my "conference" request. Now, I was really anxious to see and talk to him!

I had a private supper with Elbert and brought him up to date on what he had missed at Granny Eltman's. Elbert was very disturbed because he was a devout believer in the axiom that anything to do with magic was evil, or bad luck at the very minimum. He would accept that Granny Eltman was on our side if I said so, but he was still a little bit skeptical.

That night, I relieved Rolf at midnight and he staggered off to bed. Fortunately, I had been able to grab a few hours sleep before I showed up for my watch duty, but I was probably not as alert as I should have been. I estimated that it was about 1:45 AM when the trouble started.

Lord Bushton woke up groaning in pain, so I knew that it was time for some of Granny Eltman's potion. I mixed some in wine per her directions and got him to drink it all. It must have worked as advertised because Lord Bushton was sound asleep within five minutes. I had just sat down when I happened to see a black cloud sweep under the closed door and into the room. Such a black was almost impossible to believe: the black simply swallowed any light that reached it.

After a few moments, the black smoke or whatever it was coalesced into a form that resembled a human, but was too black to look like anything real. I rose from my chair, knowing that this thing was here to kill Lord Bushton. I drew my bastard sword and approached the apparition. I had the impression that it turned toward me, though I could not see that it actually moved. I swung my sword at it, and the blade went through the figure just as if it had truly been smoke!