Amor Omnia Vincit
“I’m going to kill you Bagshaw!”
“I’m going to kill you Naysmith and then I’ll defile your body!”
Naysmith drew in breath for a retort but hesitated with a bewildered expression. Theodore imagined he was trying to figure out what his neighbour intended for the defilement of his crooked, old body.
Theodore stepped between them and raised his hands. “How may times have I settled a dispute between you two?”
Bagshaw looked up at a cloud and pondered for a moment. I would say once every three months or so for the last three years. What number does that make Naysmith?”
“That makes 43 you old fool.”
“I’ll kill you Naysmith and defile your body twice!”
“Shut your mouths! Naysmith, it’s your fault that your sheep broke through the fence and grazed on Bagshaw’s hayfield so you owe Bagshaw one of your sheep.”
Bagshaw smiled in victory and Naysmith’s face turned purple.
“A sheep is worth more than the damage I see here so Bradshaw you will give Naysmith 10 bundles of hay to balance the scales.”
Now both men were shouting their complaints and Theodore raised his voice over theirs. “Who’s the bloody lord of this fief?”
“You are my lord.”
“What are you going to do Naysmith?”
“Give Bagshaw a sheep.”
“What are you going to do Bagshaw?”
“Give Naysmith ten bundles of hay.”
“Good idea.”
Theodore put his large calloused hand on the head of his son. “Let’s go into the village Abraham.”
Father and son walked the short distance to the village and enjoyed the beautiful summer day together.
“What is your assessment, Abraham?”
“Neither side felt like they won, but neither side felt like they were cheated.”
Theodore smiled in approval. His six year old son had a brighter mind than most scholars. But then, Abraham was a very special boy.
“But I think it would have been more accurate for Bagshaw to pay five bundles of hay instead of ten bundles. That herd of sheep did a lot of damage.”
Theodore was both embarrassed and proud. His young son was just a little too sharp sometimes. “You are right. I do not like Bagshaw talking about defiling bodies like it was a joke. I saw enough of that during the crusades to think that is funny, so I made him pay for it. He is lucky I did not cuff him on the ear.”
Abraham looked up at his father. He had only known a gentle hand and a kind voice from him, but he knew from observation that a cuff on the ear from his father was not a small thing. Theodore was not to be trifled with. In a country full of nobles that called themselves knights because they could strap on a sword, Theodore was verus.
Theodore was a knight of Christ and he had killed dozens of skilled warriors on the long road to Jerusalem in the crusades. When he returned home to be the lord of this small fief, he didn’t need much help to wipe out the bandits plaguing the roads of his lands. He was a rare combination of ferocious but fair. The fief prospered under his stewardship and his people loved him.
Theodore and Abraham walked down the only road of the modest village and exchanged greetings with people along the way. There was an unfamiliar horse in the stable beside the village’s small inn and Theodore scowled when he saw it.
“Abraham, we had best walk home.”
There was a shout from behind them as they continued on their way. Theodore ignored it and quickened his pace.
“My lord, didn’t you hear me calling after you?” A priest ran up from behind them. His face was red from anger and the unwelcome exercise.
“I did, but I ignored you.”
“I was told you were rude.”
Theodore didn’t reply. He straightened the chain mail he always wore outside his home and hitched up his sword belt to a more comfortable position.
“Why has your son not started his religious education yet?”
“Priest, my son is my business. I suggest you mind your own.”
“You are a soldier of Christ. Your son needs his religious education. Who do you think you are?”
“I’m a man with a long sword and a short temper. Get on your horse and leave my fief.”
The priest opened his mouth again but Theodore cut him off. “Shut your mouth and walk away.”
The priest was furious but not quite stupid enough to press his argument. He whirled away to return to the inn and drink away his humiliation. The rosary tied to his belt swung outward and grazed the skin of Abraham’s forearm. Abraham gasped with pain and covered the burned skin on his forearm with his hand.
Theodore had already turned his back on the priest and didn’t realize what the priest had seen. Abraham hurried to catch up to the long strides of his father.
The priest watched the father and son leave. He was shocked but also pleased. “Antichristus!”
Home was a humble stone manor that matched the small fief that was Theodore’s responsibility. The entire household consisted of Theodore, Abraham and an elderly widow from the village who served as a housekeeper.
Theodore unbelted his long sword and hung it on the back of a kitchen chair. Abraham sat down beside Gertrude and she filled a bowl of stew for him.
“Did you sort out those two old fools my lord?”
“Pffft, I kept the peace. I don’t think Jesus Christ himself could sort out those two jackasses.”
Gertrude tutted at the blasphemy and crossed herself. “I hear Ser Alderock’s daughter will be hosting this year’s fall festival. Such a pretty young girl. She’ll probably be engaged before the festival starts.”
Theodore slipped the heavy chainmail hauberk off and folded it over the chair to join his long sword. “Stop trying to marry me off Gertrude.”
“Abraham needs a mother. How is it that no woman is good enough for you?”
“Because compared to Abraham’s mother, every other woman is boring.”
“Tell me lord what was she like?” Gertrude always pried for information when Theodore was in a talkative mood. Her web of gossip was extensive and had an insatiable appetite.
Theodore pulled out a chair and reached for the bowl of stew that Gertrude handed him. “Nobody could tell her what to do, including me. She made me laugh. She.” He looked at Abraham and patted his shoulder. “She loved her son.”
“How did she make you laugh? Did she tell you jokes?”
“If you are going to conduct an inquisition Gertrude, you will need some hot coals and a skewer.”
Abraham laughed at Gertrude’s scowl. “Do not mind him, Gertrude. That priest from the city was bothering him again and he is in a bad mood.”
Theodore bent his head over the bowl and ate his supper. The priest was more than just a bother. If he kept sticking his nose into places it did not belong, he would be killed on the road by a bandit that bore a strong resemblance to Theodore. When he was a young knight that first set off on a crusade to the holy land, the idea of killing a priest was unthinkable to him. Now he would be willing to kill a hundred priests to protect his son.
He polished off his stew and held out the bowl to Gertrude for a refill. Gertrude may be a trial but she was also an excellent cook. The herb garden she maintained just outside the kitchen door ensured Theodore and Abraham ate tastier meals than a duke. “This venison stew is exemplar Gertrude.”
“Of course it is.”
Every night at midnight Theodore and Abraham had a routine. They would silently enter the west wing of the manor that consisted of reception room dominated by a large convex mirror hanging on the far wall. The east wing contained a small chapel.
Abraham sat on a chair and looked into the swirling shapes inside the mirror that started to appear at midnight. Tendrils of black smoke escaped from the mirror’s edges and spread across the floor.
“How are my boys today?”
“Father is in a bad mood mother.”
“Let me guess. Is it the priest again Theodore?”
Theodore sat down as well and yawned. “It is. He presses too hard.”
“If I were not banished from Earth, I would kill him for you.”
“He is not a bad man. He is a man of faith. He is only doing what he thinks is right by God.”
“You can hide a lot of bullshit behind a cross.”
Theodore frowned at his laughing son. “That was not funny Abraham.”
“If your father was not trying to be a good example for his son, he would have laughed as well Abraham.”
There was the sound of breaking wood and Theodore jumped out of his seat to look out the door. He could see lights moving inside the chapel across the hallway. “Stay with your mother Abraham.”
“Where is the cross for this chapel ser?” The priest demanded when Theodore appeared at the doorway.
Theodore stepped inside the chapel and three knights of Christ encircled him. He knew two of them well and considered them friends. The third knight was unknown to him.
“It is being replaced. The old one was rotting away.”
“Is that so? Tell me the name of the craftsman that is building your new cross.”
“First I will tell you to get out of my house.” He faced the two knights he considered friends. “You break into my house in the middle of the night and accost me like a criminal. What is your justification?” The knights wouldn’t look him in the eye and instead looked toward the priest.
“Because your son is Antichristus and you have been tainted by evil! I will purge this house in God’s name!”
“A horse has kicked you in the head.”
“I know what I saw. Bring your son forward.”
Gertrude had been wakened by all the noise and pushed her way into the small, crowded room. “Get out!” She screamed at the knight Theodore did not know. “Get out of our house. You have no right.”
The knight locked his gaze on her and she seemed hypnotized by how quickly and effortlessly he unsheathed his heavy three foot sword and cut through half of her neck with a twirling, backhand stroke. The knight flicked most of the blood off his sword and looked at Theodore with no expression at all.
Theodore realized that tonight was the night he was going to die. If he was wearing armor and wielding a sword the chances were even that he could beat one of these knights in single combat. Each one was effectively his equal. Wearing nothing but a night shirt he was a rabbit facing three wolves.
Abraham appeared at the doorway and looked in shock at Gertrude’s corpse lying in a huge pool of blood. “Run!” Theodore roared in his command voice.
Theodore felt a strange peace settle over him. Every knight wanted his death to have purpose. He could think of no better death than dying to protect his son.
He already knew who was the weakest link in the chain surrounding him. That twirling backhand the strange knight used might work well for decapitating a defenseless, old woman, but you didn’t play stupid games with your weapon against a real opponent or you would pay dearly for it.
There were four small pews in the church and they were not secured to the floor. His three opponents must have assumed they were because they were all caught off guard when Theodore picked one up off the floor. His target performed the maneuver Theodore expected him to do and he smashed the end of the wooden pew into the knight’s exposed elbow.
Theodore kept pushing forward and rammed the other end of the pew into his opponent’s face. He immediately threw the pew behind himself to impede the knights at his back.
He grabbed the stunned knight in a bear hug that pinned his arms to his sides and used him as a shield against the two swords that would have cut him to pieces if he hadn’t kept pushing relentlessly forward.
His two friends advanced cautiously. They knew how dangerous he was and they would make no mistakes. There was a large pool of blood from Gertrude between themselves and Theodore. They weren’t going to charge in to slip and fall in front of him.
Theodore’s prisoner whipped his head back and cracked him in the face with the back of his helmet. He managed to hang on to the bearhug and threw himself into the pews on his left. One of the pews ended up on top of them and he used the cover to pull the knife out of the scabbard on the knight’s belt. He gripped the rim of the knight’s helmet and pulled his head back so he could plunge the knife into the man’s open mouth.
He ripped the knife out and looked up to see where the other two knights were. Theodore heard a hissing sound and a sword tore through his left cheekbone and eye.
His right eye looked up at his friend’s face to see resignation and regret. Theodore rammed his knife under the knight’s chainmail hauberk and into his thigh.
The third knight ended the fight when he thrust his sword into Theodore’s heart and twisted the blade as he pulled it out.
He looked down at the wounded knight who had fallen to the floor and was pressing his hands against the blood pulsing out of his inner thigh. The wounded knight looked back at him and shook his head. “This is an ugly way to die. This is a bad death.”
The lone surviving knight agreed with his dying friend. They had killed a fellow knight, a friend, who was fighting to protect his young son. “If you have lied to us priest. I will kill you.”
The priest looked at the knight in shocked outrage. “How dare you threaten me! You risk excommunication.”
The knight grabbed the priest by the front of his robes and dragged him out of the blood drenched chapel and into the hallway. He could see Theodore’s son beside a large mirror in the room opposite the chapel. He entered the room with the priest in tow.
“I will show you! I will prove my charge.” The priest stepped forward and pressed his crucifix against the forehead of the young boy. Abraham screamed in pain and fell to the floor as the crucifix burned deeply into his flesh.
“Do you see? Do you see? Antichristus!”
“I see. You get to live but leave the boy alone.” The knight grabbed the priest by the robes again and pulled him away from Abraham. The least he could do, was to insure his friend’s son died a quick death.
He pulled out his knife and hesitated. He had killed children during the sack of Jerusalem and he still carried the guilt like a stone around his neck.
The convex mirror in front of him was bulging toward him and cracks formed as the thick glass split into pieces. The mirror shattered and a red arm emerged from the black smoke that spilled into the room.
Long claws tore out his throat and he dropped the knife with a sense of relief. He fell to his knees and watched as a demoness stepped out of the ruins of the mirror and confronted the priest.
The priest raised his crucifix and thrust it toward the demon from hell. “Deux Vult!”
The demoness ducked to the side and her tail yanked the feet out from under the priest. She jumped on top of him and plunged her thumbs through his eyes and into his brain. “Ede faecum!”
She picked up her son from the floor and held him while she whispered into his ear. Abraham’s mother carefully stepped over the body of the priest and crossed the hall to enter the chapel.
The demoness lowered Abraham onto the remaining intact pew and knelt beside her husband’s body. She carefully turned his head to conceal the ruin caused by the sword on his left side and smoothed his hair.
Abraham’s mother sat down beside him and she held her weeping son close to her.
“The first time I met your father he rescued me from two crusaders who were slowly torturing me to death. A demon has no right to expect mercy from anyone, but Theodore did not see things that way.”
“How could I not love him. He was my hero.”