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 event of the day was jousting, and she was strangely attentive, even rising to her feet to watch the Azure Knight compete.
He wasn’t quite as talented in the other fields of competition as he was at sword-fighting — a skill he’d been tutored in and mastered once he’d come to live with the Hales — but his true talent lay in jousting too, something relatively new to him, but he was quite passionate about it all the same.
Encouraged by the high-spirited moods and laughter filling the crowds on this sunny day, Sir Isaac stood up and then mounted his horse as his name was called out. Wielding his lance like an over-sized sword, he straightened up and smiled under his visor, somewhat confident that he might come out of this particular competition victorious.
As on the previous two days, none were capable of standing before the Azure Knight. He was hard-pressed against some few opponents — Lord Deucalion in particular, despite his handicap, nearly defeated the concealed knight — but skill, youth, and determination won the day each time.
And then his final opponent appeared, and the crowd clamoured with excitement, for the other knight bore the heraldry of Lahey on his shield. That family was thought to be extinct, wiped out in an unexpected clash with the House of Argent, yet this knight, tall and smiling, carried his helm under his arm and was announced as Sir Camden Lahey.