Knights Multiple and other stories

The company of the Cnyht Bachelor were camped on the brow of a hill, overlooking a wider river valley. It was winter and floods encroached onto the wild territory; snow, wet from the thaw, sat awkwardly in patches across this landscape. They had paused to gather supplies and to replace provisions. A recent campaign had proven difficult and resources had been stretched. Despite the high fees charged for their services the region in which they found themselves was not rich and it was winter. To bring his army back to lands that prospered they had had to travel for many weeks. The melted islands of snow turned to grey green, then turned to slushy ice, which intern turned to mud as they had marched forth. The picture was one of a cold lonely and barren place and at times the company of the Cnyht Bachelor’s now depleted army wondered what circumstances and chance had brought them to this place. It was not all of their doing.

In contrast to the drab and still winter gloom the camp was a smoky busy affair with vestiges of bright banners, heraldic achievement and horses livery camped in the muddy countryside. The knights’ grimy armour and garments hung outside tented lodgings pitched in the open land just outside of the forest. Plumes of smoke rose from multiple fires and mixed into the low mist that partly obscured the armies’. Women and young men and children foraged amongst the camp; washing, cooking, mending armour and fixing weaponry. Smiths shoed horses in preparation for the immense task of refitting the knights for any new campaign.

A pride remained within the company, glory long since passed, but mostly they all believed that their purpose was just, and this pride created an image of confidence in the camp – the knights were bold, upright and proud. Despite their lengthy adventures they remained resolute and positive.

The knights within the army of the Cnyht Bachelor had been campaigning for many months – years for some. New knights joined and left to pursue their own desires and quests of fortune. This was not a conscript army, knights joined for the collective strength that the numbers gave them – only when they achieved strength of mind and were resolute in direction, did they choose to leave and seek their own goals. At one time, the companies of the Cnyht Bachelor presented a myriad of patchwork coloured livery whilst marching or waiting before a battle. Those men who remained were amongst his closest companions and allies. His knights had shared his dream and none wished, or could be persuaded to depart.

Only one new knight had joined them in the last twelve months. The Cnyht Bachelor wondered how that could be when he saw so much discontent in the lands he had travelled. It was true that throughout the years of campaigning, less adventures and opportunities had come to them, and that the quality of their work was now suffering from the lack of people who understood and respected those values the Cnyht Bachelor upheld.

Too many communities had now lost their identities and their society was broken by years of turning a blind eye to the problems affecting their families. The lands were cold and the people they had encountered seemed increasingly colder still; short sighted with heads bowed, selfish and narrow-minded. The people seemed driven by commerce, trade and a wealth that betrayed ancestral origins of sharing and quickly created mistrust and weakened generosity. The Cnyht Bachelor felt increasingly uncomfortable in a world where objects were now seemingly more important than people, a place where lack of risk was conspicuously associated with the lack of freedom and common sense.

These were the thoughts that occupied the Cnyht Bachelor as he surveyed the scene in front of him that early evening. These thoughts sat uncomfortably with him, as for many months now he saw no real resolution or clear idea to the solution.

Black crows, that had been perched in the trees, were suddenly startled into flight - something imperceptible or out of place had suddenly happened. That something went unnoticed by the Cnyht Bachelor, but not by his horse that was wet from the evening dew. The horses breath was noticeable in the cold air. Its nostrils flared and the exhaled air lingered, dissolving slowly into the low-lying mist. The horse now roused itself and retreated nervously and raised its head surveying the landscape around. The Cnyht Bachelor, seated in his saddle and who had remained stonily still, reigned his horse back to a calm state, his leather gauntlets tightened and articulated plate mail moved across itself in correspondence with the Knights movements; his muscles remembered back into action from hours held in silent contemplation and now returning to their natural active state. Now broken from his reverie the Knight clenched his hands tightly and nudging the horse with his spurs, gestured the reigns to turn. The steed turned away from the scene before them and their gaze was returned to the encampment.

What struck the Cnyht Bachelor at that moment was the depleted scale of his army – it was far from an army now – only a small company. Those knights who remained, and who had fought with him over so many miles, were unfortunate he thought, not to have found their own direction and continued to live a life that brought sporadic opportunity. The company had never been keen on battle. If they were doing their work well, that was to be avoided, but inevitably they had had to engage and overcome tough opponents. Their approach was more about diplomacy and less about physical force. Once upon a time, one of the strengths of the Cnyht Bachelors army was its vast number, and this overwhelming force defined its reputation and ability to bring about a change for what he deemed was right and good. Throughout the lands the armies success in completing complex military and diplomatic objectives created a formidable reputation. In effect arbitrators, the armies of the Cnyht Bachelor supported justice and enabled resolution. They were not pacifists, just realists. Their opponents could never muster enough passion or hate to defeat them.

The armies of the Cnyht Bachelor had taken their campaign across a large part of the known kingdom. But they had affected many people and created an imbalance. They had gone too far and to deep into the cultures they came into contact with - too much compassion, too much liberty, and therefore too much compromise. His army never chose to impose justice on a community; they reacted to invitation, and worked for and on behalf of a client, whether that was kingdom, city, town or local family feud.

The Cnyht Bachelor sat considering a new question; “When had the use of arbitration become a means of pacification?” His work had upheld a position that supported mediation, where they felt that compromise was a benefit to all. But for the Cnyht Bachelor it now seemed that he had been instrumental in creating a negative and inverse reaction. Passion and energy and striving to succeed or overcome, had been replaced with malaise and boredom.

This was the demon that had begun to infect the Cnyht Bachelors mind. He couldn’t help wonder that, although his company were resolute, both in themselves and the work they had done, perhaps they had misguidedly encouraged this change in the communities they encountered. Could their success in diplomacy and mediation and the removal of conflict have stifled passion and energy? Were communities better off with conflict and power? A struggle and a fight had originally defined the Cnyht Bachelor’s purpose, but he had now created comfort. He longed for the memory of passion and a sense of personal power and how these feelings had led him to be inventive, innovative and progress.

His thoughts dwelled on the role of the market place, commerce and business. He considered the merits of these rigorous and profit driven activities – was this a way to reclaim passion for his quest? When was the last time a city had been conquered, delivering with it a massive change in social, artistic and economic culture? Had cities of the past been changed for the better that way? What was wrong with that and why had he not considered it important before?

The Cnyht Bachelor’s horse had trotted instinctively to its masters’ tent; the rider oblivious to the fact that they had now entered the centre of the encampment, and to where his squire received them. Standing firm and holding the reigns and saddle the squire gestured to his master to dismount. In a steady motion of controlled and familiar strength, restricted by the weight of the now familiar armour, the Cnyht Bachelor swung down from the saddle followed by the unmistakable clanging sounds of formed plate metal armour hitting metal. He had almost forgotten what silence sounded like as he was rarely out of his armour or surrounded by it. Smiling to himself he thought of the full-scale military assaults that he had witnessed as a younger man. There was no sound like it and the memory of hundreds of knights swarming into battle, deafening and intimidating and shattering their opponent’s lines, strengthened his composure.

That evening the Cnyht Bachelor sat with his company. Some of his strongest comrades at arms were present. He noticed their enthusiasm, fun and relaxed enjoyment, and this made him restless. This uncomfortable feeling invaded his mind, resolving nothing and compounding his thoughts from the cold evening. He felt displaced and isolated. He thought more about the many knights who had travelled with him and those who had departed from his campaign. How could he accomplish this withdrawal, and return to a way of life that developed him as an individual. How could he leave, when for years his strength and continuity had brought others together? He had always been the reliable one, full of encouragement and direction.

The tent in which they ate was large and surprisingly warm despite the wintry damp morning. A large fire in the hearth created short wisps of smoke chased upwards by mischievous and mesmerising flames. The smoky tent smelled of a mix of burned beech and elm wood, prepared and seasoned by those men or women tasked with such things. He realised that he did not know them, those who kept his hearth alight during the night. The floor was swept and compressed with mats and furnished with rugs, all acquired over many years of campaigning, their exact origin or time now forgotten but presented to assume luxury. His thoughts drifted now to those people who managed his lodgings. He realised the people that kept his comfort were unknown to him. These furnishings, alongside the wealth of other artefacts, presented an image of comfort and success, and a sum of the experiences he and his followers had undertaken. However, the Cnyht Bachelor now considered these trinkets a burden of discomfort and something else that required movement, planning and organisation. He had no hand in moving these ‘necessities’ that was the role of one of his staff, and again he felt an awkward sense of the unfamiliar about this valet. The Cnyht Bachelor wondered whether his, and his entourage’s constant change of location, was a discomfort for them. The knights had a choice to be with him or not, but for the staff who received there orders, what choices did they have? These employees, how fulfilled were they and how did they see their role in his and the other knights’ campaigns? He began to consider the implications of the large network that he had created that supported, primarily, his own principles. It was a network of constant reliance on others. It was no longer a movement which affected him personally, his success was reliant on the work of others, whether they liked it or not – they had fewer options.

With that seemingly selfish thought, a heavy sense of tiredness overcame him.

The other knights in his company did not notice his silence and continued their well-mannered pleasure, for they had grown used to his reticence this last year. For the Cnyht Bachelor, being outside of this camaraderie felt uncomfortable and lonely. Amongst his knights women wove an emotional and tender thread of flirtation and desire. Many of the knights had their favourites. Some had wives; many had children that travelled with them, assuming some resemblance of a travelling family, without the security of a town or city to reside in. For the Cnyht Bachelor years of campaigning had brought many loves, but none that lasted, none that had supported his campaign or who had been willing to be independent of him – to be wiling to exist wholly without him by their side. Many years of campaigning had forced him to acknowledge his solitude, and to use this solitude to formulate ideas and theories that directed and motivated his journey. Each romantic interlude strengthened his mind but yet created vulnerability. He considered it likely that It was this vulnerability that now undermined his spirit and questioned the ethos of his work.

The Cnyht Bachelor often felt like he was the last to benefit from the professional opportunities as lesser knights could leave to explore new ventures. The Cnyht Bachelor now felt trapped. His confidence had been replaced with humbleness. Many of his fellow knights seemed comfortable with the way that the campaigns had steered them, but for the Cnyht Bachelor this nagged at him, more now than at any previous occasion.

He was restless for change and now he wanted to disband his army. The consequences of this, he felt, would be devastating to his remaining followers. The knights that remained and who sought his direction and leadership would be quickly dispirited by his decision. The Cnyht Bachelors campaigns would no longer continue. He new it was time to withdraw from a self imposed cause and return to the beginning.

As an errant knight he had campaigned on his behalf and travelled alone. He longed for the relationships and influences he had on those he assisted directly. He was a knight who led by example, a person who created challenges for himself. Other knights in his company had seen this in themselves long ago and left to pursue their dreams.

In the early hours of the morning when the camp slept and the sentries slumbered, and before those valets tasked with tending to him and the work of the camp had awoken, the Cnyht Bachelor collected his faith, his sword, shield and lance and slipped away into the forest.

All material © copyright Justin Neal