Out of Time

Chapter 15

The next day, Dani stepped out into the bailey to see that the snow had melted some. It had not been much of a storm, only dropped a few inches of snow, but it had been enough to keep most everyone indoors for a spell.

But now, patches of dirt could be seen through the white, and people once again bustled their ways around the bailey. The clang of swords rang as men practiced at war, and a cacophony of voices rang through the air, completely senseless to Danielle's untrained ears.

As she crossed to the archery range, she noticed Lancelot practicing with a sword, and she could see how they would be a perfect fit—Lancelot and Guinevere. There was an innocence, a naïveté that the pair shared. She didn't know Guinevere well, but she could see them as a couple, certainly more easily than she could see the girl with Arthur.

It would be easy to imagine Lancelot leaning down to give Guinevere a kiss, and wouldn't look near as skeezy as with Arthur. Lancelot looked like he could still be in high school, while Arthur was an adult, through and through.

She shook her head, and turned to the target. Please... Twunk. A smile crept over her face as the arrow swayed on the target, almost dead center.

"Well done, Dani."

She jumped, realizing the product of her previous musings had snuck up on her, and now leaned on the fence much like he had the first time. "Thanks."

"It seems Arthur doesn't have you doing inventories or scribing for him at the moment, and you seem to have mastered your archery well enough. Would you like to train at swords as well?"

She chewed on her lip. While she could manage archery well enough, she somehow doubted she could manage her own at sword fighting. She turned her head to the men currently sparring, noticing the speed at which they swung the blades, but also the size of their arm muscles as they swung them. Good Lord! They were larger than her thighs had ever been. She would never be able to deflect a blow from someone so big.

Noticing her gaze, Lancelot shrugged. "Don't worry. We'll start you with practice swords, and I'll spar with you myself. And before you know it, you'll be big and brawny just like the rest of them. Just you wait and see."

Not bloody likely. But she imagined it would be expected of every man to learn to fight, to learn to use a sword. She might give herself away if she refused. So with a defeated but resigned air, she nodded and walked toward the fence, slipping through it to the other side. "What now?"

#

Merlin about choked when he exited the keep. Expecting to see Danielle in her customary position at the archery range, he frowned when he didn't see her, then scanned the bailey, which was what had caused his reaction. Danielle had a sword in her hand, and had just blocked a blow from Lancelot that nearly drove her to her knees.

He wanted to yell at them to stop, that a woman shouldn't be fighting with swords, but paused. He'd promised her he wouldn't out her as a woman. The only way he could stop the sparring was to out her. The chivalrous part of him chaffed at watching a woman fight a man, wanting to step in, protect her, stop this madness, but he could not break a promise. And he'd promised.

What had he been thinking? By promising what he had, he was putting her in danger. But more than that, he was putting Camelot in danger, because he felt quite certain that the woman currently sparring with Lancelot du Lac had the fate of the kingdom in her hands.

#

"This is just inordinately stupid," Dani grumbled as she stepped into the woods, taken a different path than she had the last time. She'd told herself that with the recent cold snap, there shouldn't be any spiders, but she couldn't be sure. She'd also figured that a different path might not have spiders at all.

But at least this time she'd thought to bring a weapon with her, the bow gripped in her right palm and the arrows strapped across her body. It had been foolish to wander the woods alone without anything to protect herself. Arthur carried a sword at his side when they walked together.

After maybe a half hour of walking through the forest, enjoying the quiet, even if the beauty of the wilderness was somewhat marred by the lack of leaves and snow, she stepped into a meadow that abutted a creek and small waterfall. The waterfall had partially frozen in the cold, winter air, making Dani wish he had a camera on her. She'd always wanted to photograph a frozen waterfall. There was just something about it, a poetic beauty, like time had stopped.

Dani drifted in the direction of the waterfall, when rustling came from the right. She turned, but hadn't heard enough to determine the exact direction, and while the trees were denuded, the sun sat low in the sky, hiding behind dreary clouds, leaving very little light to pierce the remaining canopy of pines.

A grunt sounded, followed by snapping branches, and Dani readied her bow, stepping toward the sounds step by step. She gnawed on her bottom lip as the sounds continued, moving from left to right. A blur of motion maybe ten feet into the tree line clued her into the location and her bow shifted to follow the motion as if it had a mind of its own.

She'd nearly reached the tree line by the time she could clearly make out the struggling pair. A woman grappled with a man nearly twice her size, the duo stumbling along the forest floor. Tripping here, bumping into a tree trunk there.

She followed their movements with her bow, not sure what to do. Why were they fighting? Who was the aggressor? She supposed if she'd been born in this time, the answer would have been simple, but she was raised in a world where a woman could be just as dangerous as a man.

Then the man drew a knife, making her decision for her. The arrow released from the string even before she realized she'd drawn it back. It hit him square in the back, knocking them both into a tree, before he groaned and slumped to the forest floor.

The woman stood leaning against the tree, her hand held to her chest as she recovered from her ordeal. After a few moments, the woman pushed off from the tree, and turned to Dani. "You saved me. Thanks." Then the expression turned pensive, and the woman started walking forward. "You're... different."

As the woman stepped closer, the light from the meadow started to reveal her in greater detail. Dani took in her pointed ears and ethereal features, and blurted out, "So are you."

The woman reached for her ears, and chuckled. "Yes, I am." She tilted her head, and continued forward, stopping a couple of feet from Dani. "Here." She reached behind her neck, removing a necklace over her head, wrapping the chain around the pendant, and offering it to Dani in her palm. "This is yours. For saving my life. All you need do is hold it and think of me. I will come."

Dani reached out to take the necklace, and the woman tipped her hand so that the pendant dropped into her own palm and the chain cascaded there like the waterfall in the meadow.

Then, with a wink, the woman blinked out of existence.      

Author's Note:  Well, I'm completely exhausted, and Thursday went by without me even realizing what day it was.  Seriously, I thought today was Thursday ALL day.  I can't wait until Sunday...