Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Lily didn’t look pleased. She glanced at Kirk and Spencer as she answered.
“I did not want to watch you extract Mara from this chamber as one would extract a rotten tooth from a gaping mouth,” she said, unhappy.
“You would not listen to me so I left. I have been in the chapel most of the day, praying for a calm solution to all of this. I see that my prayers have brought Kirk returned from Ireland although I am not entirely sure that was the calm resolution I was praying for. I think it may be the more violent option.”
Mara let go of Kirk and went to Lily. The woman put her arms around Mara and the two of them hugged tightly.
“Lily, your father refuses to release me to Kirk,” Mara said. “Kirk will fight for me and your father has ordered Spencer to champion him. Please tell your father not to do this. Please tell him to let me go.”
Lily was inflamed. She looked accusingly at her father. “Kirk and Spencer are going to fight for your right to keep Mara?” she was outraged. “Father, I have never known you to be foolish or evil, but what you are doing is wicked. Do you hear me? You are being wicked!”
Lionel would not be reprimanded by his daughter. “Get out of here,” he told her. “Go to your chamber. This does not concern you.”
Lily wouldn’t budge. She held up an angry finger, wagging it at him. “I am ashamed of you,” she scolded. “See what your greed and selfishness has done? Kirk will never trust you again and you have even made Spencer miserable. How can you do this to people who respected you?”
Lionel was furious. He was also shrewd. He made his way over to his daughter, who still stood there with Mara. He scowled at his only child.
“It is not your place to rebuke me,” he told her.
“Things in life do not always work out as we have planned. Life is not a glorious white field of flowers, pure and for the taking. We do not exist from one happy moment to the next. In this world, we must fight for survival and for what we want and if that meets with your disapproval, so be it. I do not answer to you.”
With that, he snaked an arm out and grabbed Mara, pulling her against him and throwing his forearm across her neck in a threatening gesture. As Mara screamed, Kirk went for his sword but Spencer was also armed. The broadswords came out and the battle for Mara, in a flash, had begun.
“Defeat him any way you have to, Spencer!” Le Vay yelled as he dragged Mara towards the twisted remnants of the chamber door. “Kill him if you must!”
Micheline, Wanda, and Valdine skittered away from the battling knights in a panic, pressing themselves into the far reaches of the room, as Lily ran for her father. She grabbed Mara’s arm and began to pull in the opposite direction.
“Father, no!” she cried as she yanked on her friend to prevent her father from pulling her through the door. “Where are you going?”
Lionel had Mara half way through the door, although Lily was tugging fiercely on her. “There is a priest in the great hall,” he bellowed. “I am doing what is my right, do you hear? I will marry Mara and we will be done with this foolish nonsense once and for all!”
Lily dug her heels in. “You will not marry her!” she cried. “Let her go!”
Mara, in a bad position, was being torqued quite seriously, but she managed to bite Lionel on the arm. He yelped and let her go, but was able to wind a hand into her dark, luscious hair. He pulled hard as she screamed.
“With me!” he roared. “Lily, let her go!”
The sounds of broadsword against broadsword filled the room, especially when Kirk and Spencer crashed into the massive wardrobe and sent it smashing over onto the floor.
Wood exploded all over the room as Kirk managed to grab Spencer by the neck and throw him down onto the demolished pile.
Micheline and the twins screamed, trying to move away from the fight, as the battle for Mara not only went on in front of them but also continued at the door.
Unfortunately, Lionel was stronger than his daughter and he had Mara in a painful position, so he was able to wrest her through the door and away from Lily. Lily, horrified and distraught, moved to follow.
“Kirk!” she cried. “He is taking her to the great hall to marry her! You must help her!”
Kirk heard the words and, with a frustrated roar, kicked Spencer as the man tried to get up.
It was enough of a blow to cause Spencer to roll several feet away as Kirk made a break for the door.
But Spencer somehow ended up on his knees and picked up a piece of the broken wardrobe, hurling it at Kirk.
The wood caught him in the legs and knocked him down to one knee, giving Spencer enough time to run at him with his broadsword wielded.
Kirk avoided two heavy blows as he struggled to his feet and the battle went on.
Lily had already run from the chamber, following her father and Mara.
Mara’s angry screams were echoing off the walls as Lionel dragged her down the stairs.
Kirk, however, had his hands full with Spencer; as much as he was frantic to rush to Mara’s aid, he was in a mortal battle.
He needed to subdue Spencer before he could go after Mara.
But time was ticking.
*
Lionel got Mara as far as the entry to the great hall.
There was some decorative iron railing in the wall and as Lionel pulled her through the entry, Mara reached out and grabbed it.
It prevented Lionel from pulling her any further as she held on for dear life, screaming with pain as he yanked on her hair.
When Lionel realized the hair wasn’t doing him any good, he wrapped his arms around her slender waist and tried to yank her free that way. Mara tried to kick him in the groin.
Lily, too, was working against him. She came up behind her father, jumped on his back, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
She squeezed and squeezed, and Lionel was close to blacking out.
He finally had to let go of Mara in order to dislodge his daughter.
With Lionel occupied, Mara let go of the iron and ran for her life.
She raced back up the stairs to where Kirk and Spencer were still doing battle, only now they were out in the corridor destroying everything in their path.
Mara didn’t want to cry out to Kirk and distract him, as she had done the last time Kirk and Spencer battled, because she well remembered what happened that time.
Therefore, she ducked into the nearest chamber, hoping to find a weapon.
If Lionel laid another hand on her, she was going to make the man pay.
She ended up in a spare chamber, small but nicely furnished.
A quick and panicked perusal of the room showed that there were no weapons available.
There was, however, a fire poker and shovel.
Mara raced to the hearth and collected the iron poker.
Taking a deep breath for courage, she ran back to the chamber door because she could hear the battle drawing closer. It was loud and frightening.
Mara was fully prepared to brain Spencer so Kirk could get the upper hand. But what happened next was not as she had planned; it occurred faster than she could comprehend. Soon, it was all spiraling out of control into deadly oblivion.
When she threw open the panel, Kirk and Spencer were right there.
In fact, they were practically on top of her.
Kirk, seeing Mara in the doorway, was distracted long enough for Spencer to take a huge swipe at his head.
Kirk ducked in the nick of time but in doing so, hit his head on the wall and nearly knocked himself out because he was without his helm.
He had left it back on his charger when he had arrived at Quernmore.
Mara, seeing Kirk go down, threw herself at Spencer, poker and all, and sent the man sideways into the opposite wall just as Lionel came racing around the corner. The old man was without Lily hanging all over him, running headlong into a battle without a weapon or any armor.
Kirk, dazed as he was, only saw a body. Assuming it was Spencer, he threw up his broadsword and Lionel ran right into it. In the blink of an eye, Lionel was impaled through the gut on the tip of Kirk’s massive broadsword.
Lionel groaned as the steel blade carved through him.
Mara, hearing the sound, stopped beating up on Spencer and they both turned to see Lionel standing in the corridor with Kirk at his feet and a broadsword through his belly.
He was just standing there as if he could not comprehend that he had just been mortally wounded.
But swiftly, reality set in as he began to bleed out all over the floor.
Blood gushed down his legs and onto the wood.
His shocked gaze found Mara, who stood equally shocked gazing back at him.
Lionel smiled weakly at her. “All I wanted,” he breathed, “was a son….”
With that, he fell forward, quite dead, against Kirk. Kirk grabbed hold of the man and lowered him carefully to the ground. All they could do was stare at the deceased lord of Quernmore Castle. As swiftly and violently as the battle had begun, it was over. The sudden stillness was overwhelming.
For the longest time, no one said a word. They just stared at Lionel. Kirk moved first; he removed his broadsword from Lionel’s soft belly, almost gently. There was a good deal of regret there. His gaze lingered on the man for a moment before turning to Spencer.
“This does not please me,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I did not intend to kill him like this.”