Everywhere, people turned to watch her slight figure pass by. It was not possible to see any detail of her features, so heavily was she veiled, but she seemed to be observing all about her, and she paused to dip her head briefly to every knight participating in the events of the following day.
When the Princess came to the Azure Knight, she stopped completely, and the hush deepened until only the crackling of the fire could be heard. She seemed to stare at his featureless helm, as if searching for something, before according him the same nod and moving on.
He straightened up as she headed in his general direction, his eyes watching with an unwavering intent as she nodded to each of the other Knights, and he wondered what it was that she was looking for. Was she merely wordlessly conveying her gratitude to those who had participated in the tournament, and had she come down in among them all to declare the victor? Or was something else going on?
And then finally, she was in front of him, and his eyes roamed her torso, her veiled face, trying to look for any similarities about the woman before him, and he even pushed up his visor to ensure that he was seeing everything. But then, she was nodding and moving on, and he felt his stomach churn a little with disappointment. Perhaps he had to try a little harder.
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.