Chivalry ♛ King Arthur

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AFTER a week, Edwyn had recovered from his illness. In turn for Frida having kept the bakery open on her own, he told her to take a day for herself. It was well deserved.

Her nose was tucked away in a book, not paying attention to her surroundings or the man that was scrambling into her open window. The floorboards creaked with his weight, but Frida didn't seem to notice. "That's a long read," Art noted, looking down at the sketches and handwritten script.

Ida almost screamed. "Arthur!" She shrieked, snapping the heavy tome shut. Her heart was beating frantically in her chest. "Don't do that," Frida chided, breathless. He grinned.

"Cosmos of Light," he repeated the title as he sank down on the cushion beside her. "Sounds boring," he mused, leaning back on the wall with his arms folded behind his head, long legs outstretched. "Tell me about it."

Opening the book to the page she had been on, Frida skimmed over the explanation and steps for light projection. She glanced over at her unexpected guest, his head was tilted up, eyes closed. "It's a manuscript for simple spells."

It had taken Cassius months to find a surviving copy. Most had been burned when the Arcanists and mages were slaughtered. A preventative measure to keep people from wondering, to keep them from discovering hidden secrets and powers. Arthur popped one of his eyes opened. "You're not a witch, are you?" It was meant to be amusing.

"No," she responded, but he could tell she was hiding something. Something that he would manage to learn one way or another. Frida sighed, looking down at her hands, contemplating what to say next. There was no point in trying to lie to him. He had always told her she was a terrible liar. "Can you keep a secret?" Ida quickly glanced up at Arthur and felt something churn deep in her gut.

He reached for her trembling hand. "You know I can," Art answered.

"I'm an Arcanist," she whispered, still not meeting his heavy gaze.

"Arcanist?" Arthur shook his head. That couldn't be possible. All the Mages and Arcanists had been hunted down and killed. "They've been gone for years," he uttered.

"My mother, my sister." Ida held up her hand and allowed a ball of effervescing light to coalesce in her palm. Me. Arthur's eyes widened. "I dream of them-" the ball of light jumped into her other hand "-of my mother's screams and the crackling of the fire. Of my sister being captured and screaming for me to run." Nobody except for her had known the truth until now. It was both terrifying and relieving.

"Ida," Arthur spoke her name with a newfound softness. "Look at me." She didn't raise her eyes, so he slipped both his hands up to her cheeks, forcing her to meet his gaze. There was something she had never seen in his eyes before, but she couldn't name what it was that was hidden behind the determination. "I'll protect you," he said. She believed him, there was no reason not to.

♛ ♛ ♛

Edwyn had sent her into the market with a list of spices, fruits, and toppings to retrieve for the bakery. They had recently been hired by a noble lord to provide a cake for his daughter's nameday celebration and the exotic requests had meant bartering for commodities that were rare in Londinium.

Saffron and vanilla were among the purchases in her basket, along with a couple of day-old sweets that she would oft give to young children that were out on the streets. A young boy ran toward her, half hiding behind her skirts and aprons. She turned with a frown. "That you Blue?"

Black Lack's son stayed quiet until a group of older boys and a handful of Blacklegs passed by. Frida's frown deepened. The boy undoubtedly had a penchant for getting himself into trouble. She expected nothing less from a boy who spent so much time around Arthur and his gang, though. She reached into her basket and pulled out the last of a frosted lemon cake.

"Here," Ida said, offering Blue the pastry. He immediately took a large bite from it with a smile. With another two bites, the boy finished it off and wiped his paint-stained hands on his pants. "Hold up," Frida reprimanded, gripping onto his shirt-collar before he could run off and disappear into the crowds. "What's got you so excited anyway?"

Blue's eyes widened. She hadn't heard the news. "The Sword in the Stone!" He exclaimed. "It's revealed itself. The born king is comin' back." That kind of talk could get you thrown into prison or worse if the wrong people heard. Luckily, most of the blacklegs were stationed around the perimeter of the market.

"Of course," she rolled her eyes. There had been a lot of talk of the born king in the past couple of days. Of young men wishing to try their luck only to return to the city with a new brand on their wrists. "If that's the case, then I'm the Queen of Camelot." Blue scrunched his face up and stuck his tongue out at her.

Frida nudged his shoulder. "Now run along and try to stay out of trouble."

♛ ♛ ♛

As usual, Frida entered the brothel through the back alleyway. That entrance was on the second floor near Art's room. Away from where any business transactions were performed. The upstairs rooms were empty though. "Lu?" Frida called, turning the corner at the bottom of the steps to enter the small kitchen and dining room.

"Ida!" The woman exclaimed, turning around with a hand still clutching her chest. The glass that was in her hand fell to the floor and shattered. Frida frowned when she noticed the dark bruises around Lucy's eye and down her cheek. It was clear that she was distraught, most of the girls seemed to be.

"Are you all right?" Ida asked, kneeling next to the woman and gathered up the broken pieces of glass in her apron. Lu glanced up and nodded. "Don't worry about me," she remarked, "it's all been sorted out."

"Have you seen Art?" It'd been two days since she last saw him. The room went silent, even the chatter that had persisted among the girls stopped.

Lucy took the shard of glass that remained in Ida's hand. "You didn't hear?" News about Arthur usually traveled through the city like wildfire. Lu drew in a long, slow breath. "The blacklegs got him," she started. That made the color drain from Frida's rosy cheeks. "Sent him off with half the men in town to try to pull that bloody sword out of a rock."

The words didn't seem to fully register. That meant Blue had been telling her the truth, the Sword in the Stone had revealed itself more than twenty years since Uther Pendragon's death. "He'll be back though," Lucy assured her, but Ida doubted that Arthur would be returning to Londinium any time soon.

Suddenly, she remembered the reason she had come to the bridge at this hour to begin with. The stone pan was still warm to the touch and in the reddish light, the caramelized sugar on the crust glistened like tiny jewels. It was a dewberry pie. One of Art's favorite things that she and Edwyn made.

"Someone brought a barrel of dewberries into the bakery and I made him a pie with the leftovers." Frida sat the pie down in the center of the sitting room and brought a copper server out of her basket. "But there's no point in letting it go to waste," she noted, beginning to cut into the flaky crust and sticky filling. Only one piece had been cut when there came three harsh knocks in succession.

"Who's knocking at this hour?" One of the girls asked. Frida thought it was Katrina. Lucy stood from the table as the doors of the brothel were thrown open with blacklegs storming in, swords drawn.