EXTRACT FOR
Queen's Champion
(Author Unknown)

     Kenner felt his heart pound as the stallion beneath him whinnied in challenge. The things a man might do for love; the more so when the man was young and foolish and when the Lady to whom he was so devoted was a Queen in peril. Here he was, a knight for all of three days, and on the other side of the field sat a Duke with years of experience astride his own veteran charger.

     Kenner was going to die. He knew it. But at least he might die in the service of the Queen. He glanced towards where Queen Grimhilde sat, watching the imminent duel. Her face was cold as stone, regal and austere. Yet he couldn't help but be smile behind the visor of his helmet. A knight for only three days, but a knight at her hands. How many knights of the realm could claim to have been knighted by a Queen?

     Kenner's armor was the finest he could obtain, but it paled before the gleaming, brightly polished plates worn by the Duke. Kenner's own mail was old, the chain links darkened with oil against rust, the plates showing dents not fully hammered out from the damage received by previous owners in long forgotten conflicts. At least his lance was equal to the Duke's; each man bore a massive length of wood tipped with a metal point, ready to be braced for the charge.

     The charge. It was beginning. Kenner hurriedly spurred his impatient steed, moving into a trot. He was taking his own life in his hands, and for the sake of a woman who was far above him in both years and in rank. The anger he'd felt when Duke Cardnam had made his marriage proposal to the newly widowed monarch, and with all present knowing that he was effectively forcing the issue upon the poor woman, had all but left him. Now he was fueled by terror and that strength of will that allowed one to act in spite of fear, that ephemeral concept known as courage.