The Knight of Chivalry

Chapter 23

For the next two years Simon served the lord faithfully as a knight, he had a lot more freedom than he did when he was a squire and for days at an end he did his own thing from training with a sword to studying in the library. But sometimes the lord would call upon him to serve him with many different tasks from being with him whilst he held court, to going hunting with him. Sometimes he did more important tasks from fighting in tournaments to visiting other lords and delivering messages for the lord to helping deal with bandits who attacked different places in the lord’s land. During these visits he managed to meet with his friends that he made during the war and saw how they were progressing. So during this time he became even better at fighting with all his training he became a lot better fighter even though he was pretty good already. He also came to understand what it meant to be a knight a lot more from his studying ad by talking to the other knights and the lord.

            One day a messenger came to the lord, he was dressed very finely and spoke eloquently. The message he delivered was that the king’s son was to be married to Princess Elizabeth from the southern realms of Embodia and that the king was throwing a tournament in honour of this and then the ceremony would take place. Along with this came a formal invitation for the lord to attend this event as it would be happening in a few months. The lord thanked the massager kindly for delivering the message and offered him hostility for the night before sending him on with a reply for the king on the morrow. The lord that the king should expect him to come and he would set off soon with his court. The messenger thanked the lord kindly for this and that night they held a feast in his honour. He left the next morning to head back to the king. For the next week or two the castle was a hive of activity as preparations for the journey to go to the capital of the realm. The lord told Simon it would take them around a month and a half to travel all the way to the capitol with all their supplies and that he didn’t usually make such a trip unless for a special occasion so it had been years since he had last been but he wanted to go this time to both honour the prince and watch the tournament but it was about time that he found a suitable husband for Anabella and possible a bride for his son as well. He also wanted Simon to fight for him in the tournament for him as he was the best fighter he posed in his retinue, Simon would be very happy to serve him in this respect.

            Once everyone was reading for the journey they set of on the main road at a steady pace as the ladies of their party rode in a carriage pulled by several horses and this was slower than riding on a horse. Luckily the road was pretty well kept so that it didn’t get stuck very often in the mud and the weather was pretty nice as it was becoming summer so they didn’t have to deal with overflowing rivers and such. Ever evening when they stopped they got into inns that were on the road and were warmly welcomed as the lord was well known in his own lands and once they were out of them it was clear they were important and had the gold to pay for the best rooms in the inn. They numbered around a hundred so they were not troubled on the road by bandits and as they got closer to the capitol they were joined by others who were travelling for the tournament from knights to lords with equally as big groups. They all greeted the lord politely as they knew who he was and they rode together and talked of days long gone and battles that they fought together. After a month and a half of travelling on the roads and going through various towns and lands they saw the capitol. To say it was a large city would be an understatement, it stretched out as far as Simon could see and had several walls that split up different districts, the fanciest being the inner ring where a massive palace stood. Simon was just blown away at the size of the place and he knew that a lot of people must call such a place home.

            “Do you know how many people live here?” He asked.

            “Father says that it would be too many to count but he heard that it was hundreds of thousands” Anabella said, she had decided to ride a horse that day and rode next to him as she liked to discuss poetry with such an intelligent person.

            “That is quite a few people” Simon replied.

            “Indeed, father once said that this place used to be a little village but hundreds of years ago before any kings came into power a powerful lord found the village and liked it so built the castle you can see in the western side of the city and etched out a land for himself. Later when the lands war all at war with each other another lord saw this castle and liked it as it was very easily defensible and choose it as his seat of power once he took it from the old lord who owned it and from here he took control of all the other lands and became the first king and this the capitol, it’s been growing ever since” Anabella said.

            “That’s a great story though I bet there is a lot more to it than that and it would not be so easy to take over all the lands as you say, it would have taken years for him to do that” Simon replied.

            “No doubt and the story is too long for me to tell but it is a great one and many a bard has turned it into a song but as you know I prefer other tales” she said.

            “Aye about romance and chivalrous knights, are we to find an inn to put us up during this event?” He asked.

            “Father told me that he has a household here, though were it be I don’t know hopefully it’s in the inner ring and not far out” she said, they rode on and discussed over things. The household was indeed in the inner ring and it was big enough estate to hold all the people the lord and brought with him to the capitol. They settled into the place and as the tournament was scheduled in a couple weeks this would give Simon plenty of time to explore the city and to get ready for the tournament.