Water Lilies

Honor Thy Father, Defend Thy Mother

Since the war began when I was little more than six-years-old, my father often told me fantastic tales of knights in great armor riding across battlefields with majestic valor for the sake of defending king, country, and kinsmen. He had a particular skill with telling stories; I'm sure the knights in his company appreciated the distraction on the evenings before their imminent sacrifice against enemies. My father stressed to me on the last day I saw him how important it was to preserve honor and dignity for one's house and lord. One must use every reserve of skill and strength to defeat enemies. Even I could, and should, do so when I come of age. He said as much because he knew he would not return this time; the war would take him after this tour and I would have to assist and protect my mother.

"Rouen," he said for the last time. I burned the memory of his voice around my name into my brain like a brand and tried not to cry.

"Yes, Father?"

"I give you my blessing to follow in my footsteps even if no one else does. Defend your mother, your name, and your lord's land as I have done. You, my only child, will do this."

"Yes, Father."

So, I took up the broadsword, as soon as I had built enough muscle tending farms and home, of course. I was taller than most boys my age, so I had the advantage with the huge weapon and became stronger more quickly. By sixteen I was my mother's greatest resource in and out of the house and able to put down any boy, and most strangers, who tried to reckon with the Stormfelt name. It did not earn me much respect and they only tried to fight me more to restore pride and honor. However, I took the challenges as an opportunity to be stronger and earn a coveted position amongst our lord's knights. After all, I was my father's daughter, and I would earn my right to defend our honor.

"Ha! Hyah! Ha!" I grunted with each swing and impact. This poor tree, long dead before I found a use for it, served as an excellent training tool. With the simple broadsword Mother's brother had made for me on my most recent Name day, I hacked away at it with every technique I had picked up over the years from local knights or those passing through. They thought it humorous to shed some fighting knowledge with a "hot-headed girl striding towards disappointment and shame." They told me it was like a dance, useful to think so anyways, and though my mother was not a highborn lady and only earned the status through her husband's success, she taught me the general ideas of grace and a light foot.

I used those dances now in this old churchyard well-enough a ways from the village in partnership with the sword and carved the ancient log into splinters. Each swing of the dull but heavy blade sent vibrations through my bones upon impact and made me grin a smile sick with vitality. I considered the tree a suitable and fair opponent. Although a truly magnificent yew, thick and stretched towards Heaven, it had not shown buds in seven springs, and the church had been neglected for five.

"Superstitious lot," I muttered to the empty air. "The yew tree feeds on the dead, so if it does not bear foliage the dead have risen and gone from their yard? None taken by Death have bothered us yet."

"Rouen!"

"Hyah!" I swung my blade around instinctually and nearly loosed the head of a village boy.

"Addy, you idiot! I could have lopped your head clean off," I exclaimed and regained composure. Eyebrows raised and fool enough to laugh at me he surveyed my work of the old yew and nodded approvingly.

"Excellent efforts, Rou! But you need to get back to your mother."

"Why? What's wrong?" My anxiety peaked and I was prepared to sprint home in case of danger. This time he laughed though and I glared darkly until he remembered humility.

"It's just that you belong there, Rouen. You know being a knight is strictly only a man's profession."

"It is an honor and duty known to run in families, Addy. It is my calling and with my father's blessing I will pursue it, whether you or anybody else approves or not." I swung my blade upward, and in fear he tumbled onto his back. With a powerful cut through a limb as thick as a man's palm is wide Addy sighed with relief for his life and stuttered.

"I thought you had used that blade until it lost its edge to bluntness?"

Shoulders back, hilt against my hip, I replied, "I did." He collected himself and without a goodbye hurried back to his father's forge.

In many places, the yew lacked bark or the lichen as thick as scar tissue preserved it. I passed my hand over the scars I left in my solemn partner. Its rough texture pulled on my calloused palms like cotton on briars and exhaustion finally felt apparent. Eighteen years had been good to me and trained me hard. Today I would leave mother for the knighthood. Today they would accept me.

"Are you going to tell them you are a woman looking to take another man's place in their ranks? Do you think they will accept that? Your father's legacy is well known, Rouen. They know his wife bore no sons."

"They will take me as I am, Mother. I will not make it a hard choice. Our lord is a friend to our name. He will test me and I will prove myself as I always have."

Her shoulders dropped and resignation drew her to her bedroom.

"I took the liberty of polishing your father's armor; his first suit that is. He was about your size at that time - you really do take after him more than me! I think we could make this suitable for presentation at the court."

I nodded slowly, "you're very well-adjusted to my leaving. Why do you not scoff at the idea like everyone else?"

She laughed in the pretty way I have always known. It sounded like home.

"Unlike... most people in this village, and every one that stretches away from here, I do not fear the changes that benefit only in the long term," she said unlocking the wardrobe. Plates of intimidating steel gleamed under candlelight like mirrors. Although polished to a new splendor, broad contusions ribbed the plates like veins. I passed my beaten hands across the surface, pausing over the fasteners for cape and plume. It would be done and I would wear the colors.

"Thank you, Mother," I said in a formal embrace. "It's time for me to go."

She nodded, dutiful even to her daughter, and called for the stable lad to bring a horse.

"Will you take his sword or yours?"

I had yet to consider it; Father's sword would certainly impress the court, but in a challenge, so might mine. I said as much by patting the sword already strapped at my hip and she assisted me as I strapped myself into the armor.

"You really do look very much like your father. If you tuck up your hair, yes, you are a woman but in armor it is not immediately clear."

I took this as her blessing and kissed her cheek before mounting the black mare. The boy gave me a funny look to which I grinned in reply and caused him to gawk as if a woman and a woman knight at that knew no sense of humor. With slight encouragement, Hengist took off like an arrow as if the extra weight could not faze her. Brigh held fast to my side and offered a reassuring weight. All I need is the opportunity to enter the ranks. Opportunity to prove strength and skill for honor and duty.

The village scenery passed like England's weather in Hengist's hurry. The early hours meant most were still stoking their work fires or feeding animals and children, so the dirt road was mine alone. Our lord's manor stood on a high hill at the north side of the village. An expansive ballroom served as the court on all other occasions and today was one of exceptional significance. In the early spring, it was expected that soldiers of worth who had proved themselves worthy would be knighted in the king's name, and new soldiers would be recruited for training. I would be one of those recruits whether they liked it or not. My father gave me an order to serve and protect.

"Boy! Hey, you, yer ridin' reckless, yea? Set'n example, boy, or m'lord'll ne're take you," a man in his fifties barked from the bridge. He led his mules to the village loaded with heavy baskets of grains and surplus from the manor's cellars. I nodded respectfully to him and he nodded back. I nudged Hengist on once more.