Shield of Three Lions Read Online Free PDF

braids. She stood beside me, I recall, but I don’t know her.”
    I heard a jangle of coins. “These are all yours if you tell me where you hid the Lady Alix. Don’t look so afrighted—I mean her no harm.”
    At the sound of my own name, I breathed in ditch water and almost choked. I put my hand over my nose to control myself and listened hard.
    Clever Maisry assumed a wheedling whine. “Please, sir, I don’t know no Lady Alix but I think I know what direction the blond doxy went, if you’ll give me some coin. I’m only a poor girl and my mum gone with the falling sickness …”
    He wasn’t fooled.
    “Yes, you know her well enough. You hid her in the village, then led me on this wild goose chase as decoy. I think you owe
me
coin for my trouble.” He paused. “I’ll take it in labor and save you embarrassment.”
    The word
labor
was filled with spite, as if ’twere a threat.
    “Oh please, sir, no …” Maisry’s voice was breathless with fear.
    I heard the clank of his armor as he dismounted, then a scream from Maisry. Quickly I crawled up the muddy bank and peered through the bush. What I saw made my heart burst. Maisry had started to run when the knight reached the ground; she might have escaped too, for he was too weighted down to give chase, except that he caught her ankle with a chain and she fell. Then he lumbered over her, smashed her cheek with his metal knuckles so that she cried out again. As she lay there whimpering, he began to undress. He unfastened his scabbard and let it drop with a clatter; next came his tunic;then the long process of his hauberk and mail; then his blouse and he was down to his leggings and breeches. He untied the leggings and finally dropped his breeches to stand naked.
    Deus juva me!
    He was not a man—he was a monster! For no mortal ever looked so, never like this naked knight. Between his legs grew a horn, aye, a protruding red organ as long and as hard as a boar’s tusk. ’Twas red in color and had a small head as if it might have a separate mind all its own.
    Then it struck me what I was gazing on and I began to pray hard to overcome his evil. This was one of those monstrous offsprings born to a human woman and an incubus! In spite of his language, he must be a Scot for I’d heard all my life how the Scots mate with monsters, goblins, bears and boars.
    Maisry gasped in horror and I thrust my fist to my mouth to keep my own cry in check. Should I go help her?
Could
I help?
    The knight fondled his deformity and suddenly pushed Maisry to the ground. Then he was atop her and permitting his incubus-organ to bite her again and again as he pushed it against her. She turned away violently and our eyes met through the brambles! Instantly she mouthed “Get down! Hide!” and I withdrew into the stagnant water.
    I seemed to be there forever. I knew the knight was dressing again, heard the clinking of his armor, then another hard thud, then the jingle of harness bells disappearing into the distance.
    I waited for Maisry to call me. After all, someone else might be in sight.
    My body was numb, the silence absolute.
    Gradually and soundlessly I again rolled onto the bank and looked through the bush: Maisry was still lying on her back, unmoved as far as I could see.
    “Maisry,” I whispered.
    When she didn’t answer, I rose to my knees and strained to see in the direction the knight had ridden. No one in sight. Shakily, I stood all the way. The faint throb of the drum still sounded from Dunsmere and invisible crows cawed from above but otherwise therewas no sound or movement. The fields lay black and empty, the sky was a lowering gray.
    I pushed through the hedge and looked down.
Benedicite, what
was this? Maisry was twisted in a strange position, her legs splayed apart. Then I saw blood gushing from her wounded crotch and her stomach streaked red!
    “Maisry, what happened?” I cried.
    I dropped to my knees to pull her dress down. Who would have dreamed that the horn was so