Curiosity

As Aaron struggles with his feelings for Lysa, a group of soldiers prepare to investigate the mysterious stairway.

3.

Curiosity

 

The discovered stairwell was the talk amongst the men for the rest of the day.    As evening approached, so did dark thunderheads in the west, and Aaron ordered work to stop for the day, so that they could all eat dinner before the storms moved over the valley.

It was about two hours earlier than the usual dinner time (which was always at sunset) as the 100 soldiers gathered in the yard in front of the bunkhouse which served as their dining area each day.

Across the yard they sat in small groups waiting to be served.    Since the day that they had arrived, Lysa had insisted on serving as the cook and server for the meals.    Four volunteers assisted her each day, but she was in charge of the dinner.

Tonight they had barbequed several pigs and a number of chickens, to the hungry men’s delight.     Aaron watched her and the other volunteers happily bringing plates of food to the appreciative soldiers.     The admiring looks they gave her both pleased him and made him feel a bit jealous.

In fact, many of the men flirted with her (though they still showed her great respect, as they knew she was highly favored with Aaron), and most of them addressed her as ‘Lady Lysa’.     She found that very amusing and had often wondered why they tried to make her into a noblewoman.     He had remained silent, but he knew why.   

The men could see his intense interest in her and assumed that she would one day be his wife.

The thought thrilled him, but worried him even more.     He watched her as she gracefully moved amongst the soldiers, handing out plates.    She was so lovely and possessed an incredible charisma of which she was completely unaware.     Even as an Orc, she had been wonderfully charming and quite attractive.    He had fallen for her then, but now, her appearance was almost overwhelming.    

Oh, how he loved her!    It was a wild, fierce love, strong and powerful, but timidly suppressed, for several reasons.

First, he feared that he might have subconsciously charmed her after his parents and sister had been murdered.    She had been so sympathetic and kind to him that he feared that he might have fallen for her partially out of a need for affection during his loneliness and pain.     Aaron was aware that he too possessed a rather untamed charm and he knew that he had unconsciously turned it on around her.     

So Lysa might have been hoodwinked by his own charisma.   She was young and maybe she had a sort-of puppy love type of crush on him.    Perhaps she was slightly awed at his station as a knight and his title of duke.   Aaron wondered, as he witnessed the soldiers all flirting with her, if perhaps they were making her see her relationship with him differently.

He should give her the chance to make up her own mind, once the stars left her eyes.

Secondly, he hesitated to tell her how he felt out of fear.    It was a terrible weakness for a Paladin to have.     But since his parents’ and sister’s deaths, he was terrified of losing her.   Death now seemed very close by, and he realized that it was partially due to his position as a nobleman.      Assassins and schemers usually didn’t stalk farmers and merchants.    The high life of nobility was endless paranoia of someone wanting to kill you or your loved ones.

Even though King Eleazar had brought stability to Marksylvania, there were enemies all around.    The Hutcaiah to the west, the Southern Empire to the south and even the occasional individual who was unhappy with the King and his court.

 

If Lysa stayed in his life, she would be at risk of the same type of danger that killed his parents and sister.      Though he was supposed to be immune to fear, the thought of something happening to her plagued him like a dark cloud.    If he loved her, he put her in jeopardy.    But the thought of sending her away was too painful to consider.    Aaron was torn between worry and desire.  

His feelings for her terrified him, for it was his weakness.    

 

“Sergeant Wilkks, I’m not really very hungry tonight and I think I’m going to work a while on those palisade stakes that we have piled behind the bunkhouse.”

The Sergeant seemed surprised, “Your Grace, do you want some help?”

“No, no, Sergeant.   I want all of you to relax and eat dinner.   I’m just going to sharpen the ends of as many of them as I can before the sun sets or the clouds move in.    In case we are delayed tomorrow morning by rain, at least we’ll have some ready to set into the ground.      I don’t need any help, so just sit and relax.”

“Yes sir… if you change your mind, let me know, Lord.”

“I will Sergeant.”    Aaron waited until Lysa had her back turned to him and slipped out of the yard, walking around the completed palisade wall sections, and then heading to the north side where they had set up a workshop to shape the wood into stakes for the wall.

He estimated that he’d have about an hour before it was too dark to work, so he picked up one of the axes and positioned a tree trunk into the make-shift brackets that they had set up to hold the trunks upright while they shaped them down to the right size for a palisade stake.

It felt good to him to swing the axe, though he was still exhausted from no sleep.    His emotions and nerves seemed to be fueling him today and he forced himself to think about a solution to his problem as he quickly shaped the young tree into a seven foot long stake.

  What could he do?    He loved her, but feared greatly for her safety around him.    Was she star struck over him?   Perhaps he was the one obsessed with her.   Had he taken advantage of her kind and loyal nature and led her along?   

These thoughts hounded him as he took out his frustration on the tree trunks.     Lost in his turmoil, he didn’t see a group of six soldiers cautiously slip around him and run from the gathering, toward the forest line in the distance.

 

***

 

“Charlie, you are absolutely insane!”    Felder grumbled as the six of them leaned against the trees, gasping for breath.

“Well, you didn’t hesitate to follow my lead, so that makes us all insane.”  

“We’ll get caught, Charlie.”   Hentlee mumbled, “The Duke will lynch us all.”

“Ah, shut up, Hentlee.    I’ve got it all worked out, you see.   I told the Sergeant that Duke Aaron wanted the six of us to guard the stairs we found, so that’ll explain our absence.”

“What if he mentions it to the Duke, Charlie?”   Walsh spoke up, “Then we’ll all be screwed.”

“It won’t happen, Walsh!”

“How do you know, Charlie?”

“Sarge ain’t going to disturb the Duke.   You saw him this evening - he’s got it bad for his squire.   He had to leave, and he didn’t eat anything either.    I tell you, he’s got the hots for lovely Lysa, but he can’t act on it ‘cause he’s a goody-goody Paladin.     So he’s struggling with his lust and he ain’t going to be keeping up with what all of us are up to.    He’ll be laying there in bed tonight thinking about her sexy little Elven body.”

“I still don’t see how we can get away with it, Charlie.”   Hentlee said, “Look at all of those rocks - it’ll take us hours to move enough of them to see where that stairwell leads.    What if it is just an old empty storage area?”

Charlie’s eyes gleamed in the evening sun, “Well, smart guy, what if we find ol’ Helios’ tomb?     Gold, gemstones, and who knows how many magic items could be there.     We line our pockets with enough to keep us well-off and leave the rest.    Then we put the rocks and debris back.   When ol’ love-struck Aaron has us clear it all away, he won’t know what we took, ‘cause he’ll assume we were excavating the tomb for the first time.      He won’t be the wiser, and we’ll all be rich.”

“If it’s actually a tomb down there.”   Walsh mumbled.

Charlie turned angrily to the pessimist, “Look wise guy, if you don’t want a part of it, then go back to the barbeque and keep your damn mouth shut!”

Walsh threw his hands up, “Hey, easy, man!    I’m here ain’t I?   Let’s stop fighting and get started clearing these rocks away before the rain moves in.”

Charlie smiled, “Now that’s more like it!    Come on lads, let’s get to work!”

Without further debate, the six men began pulling the rocks and debris from the buried stairway, as in the distance, thunder warned them of an impending storm.

 

***

 

An hour and a half later, Aaron blinked back into total awareness as he realized that he had completely finished sharpening all of the wood stakes that had been piled there.     He was rather alarmed that he had little conscious memory of the actual work, for he had spent the time in deep thought.  

Yet the work was done and he sank down onto a tree stump, wiping his sweat covered face with his tunic, which, he had (apparently) removed sometime during his labor.    His arms were leaden and he was cotton-mouthed with thirst, but at least he had finished the task.   He had not dreamed that he would have completed it this evening, but his turmoil had given him the energy to do it.

Not that he had reached any decision about his dilemma with Lysa.  

“What am I going to do?”   He said to himself, wiping his forehead as he listened to the distant thunder.     He was surprised that the storms had not moved across the valley yet, but perhaps the mountains had delayed the storm front.

“I really wish I knew what to do.”   He again spoke to himself, debating a trip to the river to wash off his sweaty body.

“You could eat something.”  

Aaron looked up in alarm.   It was Lysa, her blue eyes sparkling in the twilight as she leaned against the back wall of the palisade.    She held a tray in front of her upon which lay several thick slabs of pork that smelled incredibly delicious to him.

“Hi.” He said, somewhat nervously, for he had not prepared himself for an encounter with her after his lengthy brainstorming session.

“Why didn’t you eat dinner, Lord?”   She asked, coming to him with the food.   He saw that the tray also held a flagon of something that he hoped would be cool to drink.

“I wanted to get this done… in case we are rained out tomorrow.”

“I thought it was my cooking.”   She joked as she offered him the plate of food and mug of Honey Mead, “I’m certainly no chef, Lord.”

“You are an incredible cook, Lysa.”   He replied, and it wasn’t just an empty compliment, for the girl was very capable as a cook.

“Good, I didn’t want to offend you.”

He took the flagon first and gulped down the Elven drink.   It was tepid, but sweet and refreshing.

“Don’t drink it too quickly, Lord, or you’ll get a bellyache.”

Aaron smiled at her concern.    It was one of her endearing traits that certainly didn’t help his problem.

He took a piece of pork and ate it, marveling at the tenderness of it.     Lysa seemed very pleased at his quick consumption of the meat and let him devour it without interruption.

What could he do?     He couldn’t stand the thought of something terrible happening to her.      Something that he could have prevented by simply not putting his own desires first.

Aaron closed his eyes, swallowing hard at what he was about to do.

“Lysa, I wanted to speak to you about something.”    He said, not daring to look at her.

“Okay.”   She replied, sensing his mood.

“You know, you are just about complete in your training as a Paladin.   It was quite easy training you, for your time as an officer in the Queen’s Guard provided most of the skills you need as a Paladin.   You are very skilled on horseback and in combat.   In fact, aside from a few waltzing lessons, I would not hesitate to knight you tonight.”

“Wow, I didn’t know I was that close to completion.”   She responded, aware that there was something more he was going to say.

“You will be a wonderful Paladin, Lysa and you will of course pledge your loyalty to King Eleazar.    This will mean that after you do this, you will no longer be under my authority and will have to follow the King’s orders.”

“Okay.”   She simply replied, now sensing what he was alluding to so hesitantly.

“Lysa, I do have one thing that I have to instruct you in, though.    I fear that it is something that has been neglected often by those taking knightly vows.    You see, traditionally, a Paladin is a man - or woman- who has forsaken most of the comforts of normal people.    Wealth, property, power, and… and even relationships.”

He could not look up at her, for it was tearing his heart out to say it to her.  

“Now, I know that you are probably wondering about all the Paladins that were married, such as King Eleazar and Queen Aurei, King Haroldris, Sir Alvis, and even my parents, not to mention King Aedric and Queen Snoe.     But this is not really what a Paladin is supposed to do.  They are supposed to not be tangled up in such things as this puts them in danger of mixing their loyalties between their liege and their family.    It is… dangerous… to have feelings for someone when you are a Paladin.    It can be used against you… I saw that when I was tortured by the Hutcaiah.    I… I felt I had to tell you this… do you understand?”

He peeked up at her when she didn’t immediately respond to his question.    Her eyes were icy.

“I understand.”   She said coolly, “It isn’t right to feel anything for anyone when you are a Paladin.   That is what you are trying to tell me, isn’t it, Lord?”

Aaron looked away and nodded, then whispered, “Yes.”

“Well, that is fine by me, then.”   She said coolly and he looked at her in surprise.

“It is?”   He softly asked.

“Absolutely, sir.”  She met his gaze, “I think you simply reminded me of what I should not have forgotten from the training I received as a member of the Queen’s Guard.     My father told me that our only love should be for our Queen, and lately I seem to have forgotten that.     It was foolish of me.”

“Lysa-“

“If that is all you wanted to tell me, Lord, I have dishes to wash before going to bed.”

“Lysa, wait-“

“What, Lord?”   Her face was a mask, but Aaron’s was an open book.

“Lysa, I don’t… I mean…it’s not your fault, okay?    It’s me… I… I have… I-I…I’m not sure…”

“You don’t seem to know what you want to say to me, Lord.   I think you had better try to get some sleep and maybe you will have clarity of thought tomorrow morning.     Now if you’ll excuse me…”   Without waiting for permission to leave, the girl scooped up the mug and plate in one hand and the serving tray in the other and stormed off.

“Oh, Lord, what have I done?”   Aaron moaned to the cloudy sky above.    

Reviews

[Elina]

"The high life of nobility was one of paranoia of someone wanting to kill you or your loved ones." This might benefit from a little rewording.
"...certainly didn’t help his problem with her." Maybe take the "with her" out. This sort of gives the impression that Lysa is the problem, and not Aaron's fear over losing her.
" She flatly said..." The order of this isn't quite right. It should be, "She said flatly..." or you may even consider rewording a bit, if you don't like the sound of that.
"...what I should have not forgotten..." This should read "...what I should not have forgotten..."

Oh, Aaron...now you've gone and done it! Tsk-tsk!
Lovely job on this, Eddie.

[Eddie Davis]

Thank you, Elina, I am glad you are enjoying it.