“I need to know more about you,” I said. “I need to know—”
But he cut me off with an exasperated sigh. “You have kissed the Black Knight. Now you have a tale to tell to 217/431
your maidens, but you mustn’t ever try to see me again.
Never ring the bell for me again. Do you understand?” Yes, I understood. He was breaking up with me after our first kiss. And okay, I’d only wanted to kiss him to try and steal his power, but he didn’t know that. What was it about me that made guys immediately want to dump me?
I nodded, stung.
He still had ahold of my wrists and I felt something wind around them. I tried to move them but he held onto them tighter.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Tying your hands so you can’t take off your blindfold until I’m gone.”
“You’re going to leave me here? Blindfolded with my hands tied?”
He laughed. I wasn’t sure whether that was a yes or a no. In a moment he let go of my hands but I still couldn’t move them.
“You can’t leave me here like this,” I said. “That isn’t chivalrous.”
I heard him stand, heard the armor clanking again.
“Hatred and love are both dangers to a man; a woman is as dangerous as the blade. Don’t pine for me though, m’lady. Eventually another will take hold of your heart.” 218/431
Yeah, and that other could be a wolf or a bear if he left me here defenseless. I tugged at my hands, trying to loosen the bands. Nothing happened. I put them to my mouth and bit at them. They didn’t budge.
“One more thing,” he called to me above the clanking of his armor. “The truth potion will only work against you when you’re talking to me, but as you don’t know my identity, perhaps it’s best if you’re always truthful when talking to men—at least the young, handsome ones.”
“Can I still insult you without consequence?” He laughed and his footsteps clunked away from me.
“Insult all you like—as long as you believe it to be the truth.”
Before I could think of a proper medieval insult, he whistled and then I heard the horse trot over to him.
More clanking while I twisted pointlessly at my hands. For a minute everything was quiet and I wondered if he’d gone, but then I heard his horse walking toward me and his voice came from higher up.
“Stand up and I’ll cut off your bindings with my sword.” I stood up but didn’t hold my hands out. “Won’t you cut me if you try that?”
He let out a mocking sigh. “And I thought you’d heard of my fame. Don’t you know I never cut amiss?” 219/431
Or at least he didn’t when he’d still had that invincibility enchantment. I didn’t know if he had that anymore, which meant that if he accidentally lopped off some of my fingers, I’d at least appreciate the irony of the situation.
Oh wait—if I had the invincibility enchantment, he wouldn’t be able to chop off my fingers, would he? What exactly was involved in invincibility?
I still didn’t hold out my hands. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d rather have you untie them.” Something knocked against my hands and then the next moment they were free. I stretched out my fingers.
The feeling came back into them with pinpricks but nothing seemed to be cut. I heard the horse trotting away from me and tugged at the blindfold until I was free of it.
I stared at my hands, which were whole, uncut. So if neither of us were enchanted, he was an excellent swordsman. I looked over to the river and saw him atop his horse, walking at a leisurely pace along the bank and away from me.
At my feet, the contents of my satchel had been dumped out. Apparently he’d been looking for something incriminating. The mirror lay next to the cheese. He must not have recognized it as a wizard’s mirror but thought it belonged to me—a vain, enamored 220/431
maiden who’d brought it along because I’d wanted to make sure I looked my best when I met him.
I knelt down, picked up the mirror, and held it over my hand. When I turned it over, the breath went out of my lungs. Scrolled on the face of the mirror were the words: No weapon shall hurt you, nor any man defeat you in battle.
I repeated the words in my mind, staring at the disappearing writing, then I shoved the mirror into my satchel.
I shouldn’t have been afraid that the knight would suddenly turn around and wonder what I was up to. I was invincible now. But perhaps it wasn’t fear at all; perhaps it was shame.
The sound of a horse running made me look back over at the riverbank. It wasn’t the Black Knight’s horse but another rider on a horse running toward him. The Black Knight drew his sword and waited. He looked like a glossy black statue.
A young man with a lean, muscular build rode up to the knight. His shoulder-length blond hair had been mussed by the ride, making his profile even more handsome. He stared at the Black Knight with such fierceness that it took me several seconds before it registered that this was Tristan. He reined in the horse with one hand, and drew his sword with the other.
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“What have you done with her?” Tristan yelled.
“Where is she?”
The Black Knight didn’t answer, just pointed his sword in my direction. Tristan glanced at me, then looked back at the knight. He still didn’t lower his sword. “Did he hurt you?” he called to me.
“What would you do if I had, little page?” The Black Knight said. “Fight me without armor? You’re no knight.”
I gathered my skirts and got to my feet. “He didn’t hurt me.”
I knew Tristan heard me, but he didn’t lower his sword. He prodded his horse toward me, keeping his gaze firmly on the knight as though waiting for an attack.
The Black Knight turned to Tristan. “Don’t raise your sword to me again,” he said, “unless you want it cut out of your hands.” The knight sheathed his sword, probably using more force than he needed, then spurred his horse forward. In another moment he had vanished into the forest.
After he left, Tristan turned his attention to me. His gaze ran over me, examining me. A good deal of the anger dropped from his face as he put his sword away.
“You’re really all right?”
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“Yes. Unless I lie to him, then apparently my tongue will burn out of my mouth. He made me drink truth potion.” I put my hand to my tongue checking to see if I could feel any difference in it. Man, by the time I was through with these wishes I was going to be the most honest person alive.
Tristan gave me an I-told-you-not-to-mess-with-the-Black-Knight look, but he didn’t say it. Instead he dismounted from his horse and helped me pick up the scattered things from my satchel. He brushed off a roll and handed it to me. Back home neither one of us would have kept dirty bread, but I put it back in my satchel.
“Is truth potion a usual commodity around here?” I asked him. “Do people just carry a vial on them in case they meet up with any suspicious women?” Tristan shook his head. “I’ve heard of truth potion, but I’ve never known anyone who had any. It’s rare and expensive— but then I guess we already knew the Black Knight had access to a wizard.” What else did I know about him? “He asked me who you were, but then he called you a page, so he must have known that much about you. How many people knew you were a page?”
Tristan handed me a couple of now cracked hard-boiled eggs. “Anyone who’s been to the castle in the last 223/431
few months. I’m pretty well known because of my stories.”
Well, that probably wasn’t a clue that would be useful.
I picked up the last of the spilled things. The Black Knight hadn’t touched the spices, the money, anything I’d brought from the future. All this wealth must have been tempting, but he hadn’t taken it. Which must mean that he was honest and not greedy.
I stood up and brushed off my dress, unable to clean a couple of spots of mud that had found their way to my skirt. I tried to think of more clues to the Black Knight’s identity, but my mind kept dwelling on our kiss, on the electric intensity I’d felt when his lips had touched mine.