Isolde

Chapter 6 - The Final Sprint

The storytelling was interrupted suddenly. Turige men began to emerge from the forest on the other side of the river, propelling themselves down the bank towards the river, just as Alouette had done. Clearly they'd been followed or Alouette had alerted them to her location by her giggles and shouts.

"Positions." Prince Alvaro called to his men "Form a wall."

His men immediately obeyed and got up from their places around Alouette, grabbing their weapons and stumbling into a line, shields engaged, just as the Turige began to jump across the narrow gap.

The prince drew his sword from inside his cape, standing behind the line of his men in case any Turige managed to breach it, "Stay behind me." he called to the women. His tone had changed now danger had arrived, he had switched from his polite yet witty charms to his other role as the commander of an army. They obeyed.

Then Alouette gave a screeching sound as another man emerged from the other side, coming towards where her and Isolde were standing. The prince turned round and swiftly dealt with him, taking him down with one blow of a sword.

"Your highness and m'lady, I know it's not usually the custom for you to have to defend yourselves, but I have very few men and we are still a long way from my ship." he spoke quickly and directly, unclasping two items from his belt as he explained himself " I will still endeavour to be chivalrous in my protection of you but to be safe take these." He tossed each of them a weapon, wrapped in a piece of cloth, as if they were soldiers in his army rather than ladies of court.

Both unsheathed their gifts and admired them. Isolde's a light steel sword and Alouette's a dagger with a gold handle. Isolde kept hers unwrapped but Alouette began to carefully re-wrap hers in it's black cloak.

"How come she got a sword?" she complained, it wasn't clear if she was genuinely upset or simply trying to ensure that next time a similar situation arose she was given the better option.

Prince Alvaro answered bluntly "Isolde has killed two people, you have alerted them of our location twice. Prove yourself worthy and I'll happily give you a sword."

Isolde tried to conceal her slight giggle at the princes comment. She thought that would silence her friend but still she continued to wine and protest "Perhaps if you'd listened more carefully to my story you'd have heard about how I saved Isolde from the river by myself. Surely that's worthy of a sword."

Isolde snapped at her friend "I'm sure it is but with all due respect, now isn't the time for thinking like that, your highness."

Alouette looked horrified, Isolde had never snapped at her before, and she had no right to do so either, she was technically a subordinate of Alouette, her lady. If anything she should have immediately relinquished her sword to her mistress if she willed it and taken her dagger gratefully in return.

The Turige were beginning to breach the wall that Prince Alvaro's men had formed, they were great in number and began to use their sheer force to push through. More men now appeared from the area behind the wall where Alouette and Isolde stood, they approached quickly, swords in hand.

Alouette went to scream for help but Isolde cast her a look warning her against it, if she was ever to be given a sword, she'd need to learn how to defend herself. Reluctantly she unwrapped her dagger and let it's cloth fall to the ground, compared to Isolde's sword it was still rather pathetic but she wanted to prove to her friend, and to the prince, that she could defend herself even with just a dagger. Alouette matched Isolde's pose. She put her feet shoulder width apart and bent her knees slightly, clutching her weapon with all of her strength. The Turige split into two groups, one running towards each of them, now was her chance, if she successfully killed the three soldiers coming her way she'd have proven herself. Her fear turned to determination and she prepared to strike, deciding on which she'd attack first.