Balin and Columbine (A Children of the May Novella - Book 1.5b)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Dolorous Strokes

‘I give the Dolorous Stroke,’ Columbine said under her breath as she scrambled to her feet to face the Knight of the Ice. ‘I will be drawn in the quest of two in the matter of true love. My blade cuts the mountains’ bones.’ Nemone’s champion had outsmarted her on the horse, as none of her other opponents had. He had noticed that the weight of the lance on her untrained right arm unbalanced her, and turned that to his advantage. But now she had him where she wanted. She had the Dolorous Stroke in her strong left hand, and she had proved that it could shatter his icy weapons. It was only a matter of time before she plunged the blade through his armour and into his heart.  ‘My stroke shall revenge the best friend you have, and this blade shall be his destruction,’ she whispered, as the icy knight adopted a defensive stance.’ That was fine, she could wait all day for him to make his move. She was patient.  ‘His destruction. His destruction,’ she said to herself. ‘Come on, you bastard. Come and meet your end.’

The crowd fell silent as they watched the Knight of Ice search out the Knight Invisible. It was amazing that so many people, in such a cavernous enclosure, could make so little noise. Columbine thought they could probably hear each of the Knight of the Ice’s small shuffling steps as he tried to force her into revealing her position. He could listen all day; she wasn’t going to move a muscle until the time was right.

Her opponent took a step towards her. And another. One more step and his sword arm would be in striking distance. There. That was it.

She lashed out with the Dolourous Stroke, and hit him on the upper arm. She rejoiced as the sword penetrated his frozen armour, as no other weapon had done that day. With a deep creaking noise, a crack splintered through the ice, and a huge chunk of his shoulder and arm guards fell to the dirt and melted into water. She could see the flesh of his arm, revealed like the corpse of some animal discovered whole in the snows of the north.

As she had guessed he would, he used the information she had given him about her position to strike with his own blade. She neatly parried his blow, using the Dolorous Stroke to slice his sword an inch from the hilt. The crowd groaned as they saw their favoured knight disarmed. Columbine had him.

Or at least, she thought she had him. The Knight of the Ice had been fully expecting her to slice the blade. He used her moment of exultation to roll himself inside her guard. The crowd booed as he laid hands on her, and the bout disappeared from their view. It was just the two of them now, both of them within the spell of invisibility woven into the invisible knight’s armour.

‘Oh come on,’ shouted a man in the crowd.

‘No kind of climax, this. We want to see it!’

* * *

Sir Garlon was much smaller than Balin had expected. No one had said he was so tiny, and he hadn’t seemed so when he attacked them in the forest. No matter now, Balin was within his guard. It was a grappling fight, and a small man like Garlon was no match for the Savage of the Isles.

He pitched the two of them onto the ground, so that he was on top of the Knight Invisible, and concentrated on smashing Garlon’s sharp blade out of his grasp. He caught a glimpse of the sword in the Knight Invisible’s left hand, and with a start he realised it was the Dolorous Stroke. Garlon must have stolen it from Columbine when he kidnapped her. More than that: he must have forced her to draw it for him too. It was their sword. It belonged only to their quest. How dare Garlon use his and Columbine’s blade. Lord Jesus, the tiny bastard was wearing her pigeon cloak too, pinned to his shoulder guards.