of the scene before me fuzz and swoop sickeningly. I stagger back so far I could be accused of running away.
Bang . I collide with something behind me: it’s the contraption they use for jousting practice – a wooden horse mounted on a wheeled trolley, which has been parked at one end of the barriers. Playing for time, I hitch myself up to sit on it, sending it trundling a short way backwards under the impetus of my landing. The crowd laughs.
My view of the hall stops swooping, but I’m enjoying the moment, so I don’t get down. I jump my feet under me, stand up on the horse’s back and leap from there onto the barrier. Sticking my arms out like a tightrope walker, I run along it until I’m past Brandon, then wobble and drop down some way behind him. I find myself not far from Arthur, who is leaning against the barrier further along, helmet under his arm, blotting his face with a gold-fringed cloth.
In an instant I’ve snagged the cloth with the tip of my sword and whisked it from his fingers. With a sharp flick, I send it flying through the air. It seems to hang suspended for a moment like an airborne pancake, and then lands – more by luck than judgement – on Brandon’s helmet, covering his visor.
The crowd whoops and cheers. Brandon, for whom the world has suddenly gone surprisingly dark, turns about in confusion. Meanwhile I bound over and thwack the hardestblow I can to his shoulder-guard, bursting one of its buckles and causing its owner to kneel heavily in the sand.
I can hear muffled swearing from inside Brandon’s helmet. The noise from the platform is marvellous. I glance up, looking for my father, but before I can spot him the herald distracts me: maintaining a professionally straight face, he signals that the fight is over.
Brandon is now sitting in the sand with his legs out in front of him. He wrenches off his helmet; his brown hair is flattened and sweaty. He casts a squinting glance up at me and grins. “My God, you’re good, sir,” he says, rubbing his hair. “Remind me not to fight you when you’re older, won’t you?”
By the time I’ve disarmed and emerged from the pavilion again, I’m starting to feel my bruises. I find the hall’s been cleared of the foot-combat boys, and an archery target’s been moved into place at one end of the barriers, ready for the next display. Servants are laying out bows and arrows on a long table covered with a cloth, embroidered with my father’s crest in gold and red and blue.
Arthur is selecting his bow – drawing one, putting it down, trying another. He’s changed his armour for an outfit of expensive black velvet; above it his face looks pale. Brandon’s hovering near him, clearly expecting to shoot too, but as I make my way towards the viewing platform a herald waylays me to say that the Spanish would like Arthur to compete against me.
I nod my agreement, my face calm, hiding my excitement. As I change direction, walking with Compton towards the table, I hiss, “I’m impressing the Spanish! I’m actually helping . Is he looking? Is Father looking at me? Is he smiling?”
“I can’t see, sir,” says Compton. “Shall I send for one of your own bows?”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
Right now I feel I could draw any of those bows lying on the table, even the heaviest.
The mark to shoot from is placed on the hall floor directly in front of my father’s position on the platform. Arthur takes up his stance first, nocks his arrow, draws, holds, then shoots. The arrow flies smoothly, and embeds itself at the edge of the bull’s eye.
I’m fizzing with energy as I walk up to the mark. The bow I’ve selected seems to have almost exactly the same drawing weight as my own, but I’m beginning to wonder whether I’ll be able to relax enough to shoot fair.
As I take up my stance, I try to breathe deeply. I try to forget where I am, block out the hall, the distractions around me, the colours, the faces, the shuffles and coughs and muted
Bang . I collide with something behind me: it’s the contraption they use for jousting practice – a wooden horse mounted on a wheeled trolley, which has been parked at one end of the barriers. Playing for time, I hitch myself up to sit on it, sending it trundling a short way backwards under the impetus of my landing. The crowd laughs.
My view of the hall stops swooping, but I’m enjoying the moment, so I don’t get down. I jump my feet under me, stand up on the horse’s back and leap from there onto the barrier. Sticking my arms out like a tightrope walker, I run along it until I’m past Brandon, then wobble and drop down some way behind him. I find myself not far from Arthur, who is leaning against the barrier further along, helmet under his arm, blotting his face with a gold-fringed cloth.
In an instant I’ve snagged the cloth with the tip of my sword and whisked it from his fingers. With a sharp flick, I send it flying through the air. It seems to hang suspended for a moment like an airborne pancake, and then lands – more by luck than judgement – on Brandon’s helmet, covering his visor.
The crowd whoops and cheers. Brandon, for whom the world has suddenly gone surprisingly dark, turns about in confusion. Meanwhile I bound over and thwack the hardestblow I can to his shoulder-guard, bursting one of its buckles and causing its owner to kneel heavily in the sand.
I can hear muffled swearing from inside Brandon’s helmet. The noise from the platform is marvellous. I glance up, looking for my father, but before I can spot him the herald distracts me: maintaining a professionally straight face, he signals that the fight is over.
Brandon is now sitting in the sand with his legs out in front of him. He wrenches off his helmet; his brown hair is flattened and sweaty. He casts a squinting glance up at me and grins. “My God, you’re good, sir,” he says, rubbing his hair. “Remind me not to fight you when you’re older, won’t you?”
By the time I’ve disarmed and emerged from the pavilion again, I’m starting to feel my bruises. I find the hall’s been cleared of the foot-combat boys, and an archery target’s been moved into place at one end of the barriers, ready for the next display. Servants are laying out bows and arrows on a long table covered with a cloth, embroidered with my father’s crest in gold and red and blue.
Arthur is selecting his bow – drawing one, putting it down, trying another. He’s changed his armour for an outfit of expensive black velvet; above it his face looks pale. Brandon’s hovering near him, clearly expecting to shoot too, but as I make my way towards the viewing platform a herald waylays me to say that the Spanish would like Arthur to compete against me.
I nod my agreement, my face calm, hiding my excitement. As I change direction, walking with Compton towards the table, I hiss, “I’m impressing the Spanish! I’m actually helping . Is he looking? Is Father looking at me? Is he smiling?”
“I can’t see, sir,” says Compton. “Shall I send for one of your own bows?”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
Right now I feel I could draw any of those bows lying on the table, even the heaviest.
The mark to shoot from is placed on the hall floor directly in front of my father’s position on the platform. Arthur takes up his stance first, nocks his arrow, draws, holds, then shoots. The arrow flies smoothly, and embeds itself at the edge of the bull’s eye.
I’m fizzing with energy as I walk up to the mark. The bow I’ve selected seems to have almost exactly the same drawing weight as my own, but I’m beginning to wonder whether I’ll be able to relax enough to shoot fair.
As I take up my stance, I try to breathe deeply. I try to forget where I am, block out the hall, the distractions around me, the colours, the faces, the shuffles and coughs and muted
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