LORD OF THE SHADOWS
CHAPTER ONE
“…. I should have known from the beginning not to concern myself. We have so many choices in life, in every situation. One choice can mean the difference between life and death. This choice, for me, would come to mean both….”
The Chronicles of Sir Sean de Lara
1206 – 1215 A.D.
Tower of London
January, Year of our Lord 1215
He shouldn’t havebothered. He knew from the moment he observed the situation that he should have walked the other way and pretended not to notice. He was hidden by the fortified entrance of the White Tower from the group that had gathered near the newly constructed buildings on the eastern wall. It would have been so easy for him to slip away. But for some idiotic reason, he remained.
A drama was unfolding in the morning hours of the ninth day of January of the New Year. A young woman with bright red hair was hanging from a second story window of the structure as someone desperately attempted to pull her inside. Through all the screaming and drama, he could see that the red-haired girl was determined to leap to a nasty death below. He left the safety of the shadows, morbidly intrigued by the life and death struggle. Like the allure of a good beheading, it was pure entertainment.
The closer he moved, the more the players came into focus. It was frenzied and dangerous. The redhead was half out of the window, set upon a narrow protuberance of the stone that comprised the exterior of the building. She was howling, struggling to break free of the hands that held her. He couldn’t hear what she was saying but, being female, he surmised that it probably wasn’t terribly important. Better to let her jump and be done with it.
His attention then moved to the woman attempting to prevent the suicide; he couldn’t make out the features at this distance, but he could certainly distinguish the blond hair that shimmered against the afternoon sky as gold would shimmer against the sun. He found himself more intrigued by the beauty of the hair than by the chaos unfolding around it.
He moved closer still, the hair luring him. As he arrived on scene, the few people that were standing about noticed his presence and quickly moved away from him. The movement was innate, like oil parting from water. No one with a sane thought in their head would dare stand within proximity of Sean de Lara. Like cockroaches, they scattered.
He didn’t notice when the group shifted away from him. That was a normal happening and not worthy of his regard. Furthermore, he was looking overhead; the redhead was most of the way out of the window by now, the woman with the blond hair pleading urgently for her to come inside. Surely things were not as bad as they seemed, she said. But the red-headed woman was lamenting loudly. She was apparently unworthy, unloved, and wholly unsuited to remain in the land of the living. The blond assured her that none of this was true. She loved her dearly.Please come inside, Alys!
He maneuvered himself towards the window. He didn’t know why, but he could see what was coming. The fall wouldn’t kill her, but it could seriously injure her. He didn’t know why heshould bother with this idiocy. Perhaps to make up for all of the evil he had done in his life, there would be one good thing he could list as a contribution to Mankind. He saved a silly girl from breaking her neck. He could imagine St. Peter laughing him all the way back to the depths of Hell for that natty little side note to an otherwise problematical life.
He was almost directly beneath the window now. The redhead slithered out onto the narrowed shelf but the stone was slippery and she was unable to gain a foothold. Just as he reached the base of the window, her grip slipped and she plunged straight down.
She was still screaming when he caught her. She wasn’t heavy in the least and he had stopped her fall with ease. But her flailing hands had clipped his nose and he could feel a trickle of blood. The girl stopped screaming, her mouth still open, when she realized that she was not a messy, broken blotch on the ground. Her startled blue eyes looked at her rescuer with such surprise that, for a moment, he actually thought he might crack a smile. He’d not done that in years. In his profession, there was nothing to smile over. He was sure he’d lost the ability long ago.
She must have stopped breathing at some point, because she suddenly took a huge gasp of air with her wide-open mouth. It was like looking at a fish. Without a word, Sean set the woman to her feet. She was shaken and her legs did not seem to work correctly. He steadied her when she couldn’t seem to stand. Her mouth finally closed and she looked at him with a sickeningly yearning expression.
“My lord,” she gasped. “I… I do not know what to say. Thank God you were here to save me, else… else I do not know what would have become of me.”
He couldn’t help responding. Stupidity always provoked his irritation. “You would have seriously injured yourself just asyou were attempting to do. God had nothing to do with my appearance.”
She clutched him for support. “But… my lord, I am sure that God sent you to save me. I am positive of this!”
“He did nothing of the kind, my lady.”
“I am in your debt, forever and ever.”
“Unwarranted, my lady.”
“But I am yourslave.”
He was thinking that he should perhaps disengage her hands and leave quickly. He did not like the way she was looking at him.
“I assure you that is not necessary,” he removed one of her hands and was in the process of removing the other. “I would suggest you stay away from windows until the urge to climb out of them leaves you.”
The young woman would not let go. She continued to clutch at him, re-grasping him every time he peeled her fingers away. For every digit he removed, two would take its place. He swore she had nine hands.
“Please, my lord,” she gasped softly. “I must know the name of the man who has saved my life.”
“Suffice it to say that I am a knight who has done his duty. No more thanks or obligation is necessary.”
The redhead was still pawing him when he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. The blond hair he had seen two stories above his head was suddenly in his midst and for a moment, it was as if time itself stood still. Startled, he found himself staring into the magnificent face of the woman with the hair of gold. Nothing about her was foul or defective. She was, in a word, perfect. For a moment, he thought he might actually be gazing upon an angel. He could think of no other explanation.