The Ballad of Sir Dinadan Read Online Free

mare and his rebec. On a sudden impulse, he walked around to the front of Lady Miriam's tent and entered. "I have returned!" he declared grandly.
    "Oh, my dear!" Lady Miriam cried, her eyes glowing, "I was so worried! Have you been injured?"
    "No, my lady. I am stronger now than I've ever been."
    "And what of Sir Edmund?" Sir Annui asked ironically. "Is he stronger than ever, too?"
    Dinadan smiled, as an idea came to him. "It was a fight that long shall be retold," he said, lapsing almost unconsciously into the learned cadences of a troubadour. "He smote the trees, and acorns showered forth; the earth and rocks and still I stood my ground. Fleet-footed Edmund, his strength like ten men's might, drew out his sword to cleave me to the heart—"
    "How did he smite the deuced trees if he hadn't drawn his sword yet, child?" Sir Annui asked.
    Dinadan ignored him. "But faster e'en than he, I gripped my blade!" And then Dinadan, with a dramatic flourish, drew his sword. He meant to place the point at Sir Annui's throat, taking him off guard. After that, the plan was a bit hazier. He had a vague idea of forcing Sir Annui to admit his villainy and promise to return to whatever land he had come from. As it turned out, though, when he drew his sword, it knocked over the one lamp that illuminated the dim interior, and they were plunged into darkness. Dinadan saw a movement and heard the unmistakable sound of a sword being unsheathed. Blindly, he raised his own sword in an instinctive defensive movement.
    He never completed the motion. His sword stopped sharply, caught on something, before he could get it fully raised. Panicked, Dinadan jerked on the sword, and it came free. There was no sound. As Dinadan's eyes grew gradually accustomed to the gloom, he could make out the very distinctive figure of Lady Miriam, but he saw no sign of Sir Annui. Lady Miriam stooped, picked up the fallen lamp, and blew gently on the still glowing wick. It caught, and in the growing light, Dinadan saw the knight's form at his feet. It seemed that the thing that his sword had caught on had been Sir Annui's throat. He was unquestionably dead.
    Lady Miriam looked calmly at her dead co-conspirator for a moment, then lifted liquid eyes to Dinadan. "Oh, thank you, my love!" she said breathlessly. "I cannot tell you how that hateful man has tyrannized me and threatened me—with a fate worse than death! But now you've rescued me, and I am yours."
    She stepped close, her hand fluttering to her breast in a very feminine motion. Dinadan saw the light flash on the blade of a tiny dagger, and he lurched backwards. Lady Miriam, her expression suddenly hard and cruel, leaped after him, but her foot caught on Sir Annui's body, and she fell face down. Dinadan backed away, out of reach of the dagger, but she didn't move. She gave a low moan, but still Dinadan stayed well clear. After a long time, reflecting that the armor on his legs ought to give him some protection, Dinadan stepped close enough to turn her over with his foot. She had fallen on her own dagger, which still protruded from her breast. Blood was already pooled on the ground where she had lain. Dinadan pulled the dagger out and threw it aside, looking curiously at the lovely face at his feet.
    Her eyelids flickered, and her lips moved. Dinadan realized that she was trying to say something, and stirred by respect for her sex, or perhaps just for someone who was dying, he leaned close to catch her last words.
    "Oh ... bugger it," she said. Then she died.

    Dinadan told the guards that Lady Miriam and Sir Annui were in counsel and, saddling his mare, left the camp. Once he was away, he took up his rebec and strummed it gently. Sir Edmund had invited him to tell a tale at Gracemoor, and now he had a good one.

II The Noble Tale of Sir Dinadan
    Dinadan rolled over, stretched, rubbed his eyes, and sat up in the grass. The warm sun that had been so pleasant at noon, after a satisfying lunch, had grown a bit too hot