In her tower, where no one could see her, the Princess — Summer —removed her veils. She sank to her knees by the fire, shuddering, and buried her face in her hands. There was no one to see the tears that crept silently down her face as she recalled the eyes, seeming so familiar, that had looked back at her from the Azure Knight’s concealed face.
The tournament continued the next day, with the end of the archery contests, yet more jousting, sword contests, demonstrations with spear and axe, and a shocking revelation that took the focus off the Princess and Azure Knight for a time: the foreign sword fighter Kiran turned out to be a woman!
Her name was actually Kira, and when Sir Jackson refused to fight her because she was a girl, she challenged any knight at the tournament to prove his skill by defeating her.
Turning away with a sigh, he headed to his own solitary accommodation and curled up, asleep as soon as his eyes closed, arms wrapped around his sword in case he should be attacked.
Morning came around sooner than he’d liked, but before long, he’d immersed himself in a wide variety of activities, archery, jousting and so on, when all of a sudden, a woman Knight was revealed, and while he staggered back with shock initially, he quickly recovered. After all, women were no weaklings and could certainly handle themselves — his Summer was proof alone of that.
It didn’t take much time for Kira to re-establish her prowess — she took on both Sir Scott and Sir Stiles at the same time and left the swordbrothers tangled up in each other’s shields. Unlike Sir Jackson, however, the two took it in good part, clapping her shoulders afterward, and Kira gave them a brief lesson in the use of her strange sword.
The archery ended, to no one’s surprise, with the chief prize in the hands of Allison the Huntress. The Princess awarded the prizes with her own gloved hands, still concealed from the sight of all. The final even of the day was jousting, and she was strangely attentive, even rising to her feet to watch the Azure Knight compete.