Status Updates From 1356 (The Grail Quest, #4)

'Coward!' Langier called, trying to provoke Roland.
Roland still said nothing. Instead he held out his left arm. He dropped his shield. He would fight without it.

The gesture seemed to infuriate Langier who, without another word, dug in his spurs so that his destrier leaped forward. Roland responded. The two horsemen closed. They were not far enough apart for either to reach a gallop, but the horses attacked.

'We will probably fight today!’ said the Prince of Wales. ‘And we shall do in this place what we did at Crécy! God is on our side! Saint George watches over us! And you will stay in line! No man will break the line! You see a naked whore in the enemy ranks you leave her there! If you break ranks the enemy will break us! Stay in line! Saint George is with us!'

'I know he was killed by an arrow cut from an ash tree at sundown, killed by an arrow peeled of its bark with a woman's knife, tipped by steel that was forged in a starless night and fledged with feathers taken from a goose killed by a white wolf. And I know that the arrow was shot from a bow that had lain for a week in church.”
'Witchcraft, the cardinal whispered.
'They must all die, Your Eminence!’

He snatched at the boy’s hand and dragged him onwards. Something white flashed by the corner of his sight. Another white flash! In his panic and fear he thought they must be doves. At night? A third slashed past and a shout sounded behind and he realized they were arrows in the night. Goose-feathered arrows, arrows of England, arrows whipping through the darkness to strike the men pursuing them from the castle.

'He was just a silly boy and I suppose his mother made him drunk! I'm sure the Virgin Mary has better things to do than spoil a young man's life. Dear me, poor boy! Now young Roland dreams of being a knight at your King Arthur's round table. I'm afraid you'll have to kill him.’

'I will?'

'You'd better! Or else he'll regard you as a quest and pursue you to the ends of the earth!’

Genevieve reached for the blood-stained gelding knife. She crossed to the count, who flinched at the sight of the blade. The silver-mailed woman looked down at him with disdain. 'Your wife will ride with us,’ Genevieve told him, 'and if you make any attempt to take her back then I will cut you myself. I will cut you slowly and make you squeal like the pig you are.’ She spat at him and walked away.

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