Guardians Of Faerie

The English/Welsh border,
Widgemoore Castle,
Shropshire, England.
February, 1067.

   "My lady, my lady, please wake up,!"

Acha rolled over groggily and peered at her maid through one open eye. She wondered what fresh disaster, had arisen this time to distress the easily distressed Ailred, She sat up rubbing away the sleep from her eyes.

   Ailred stood by wringing her hands, Acha groaned.

"Please my lady, your father says you're to be awakened immediately and to prepare to receive guests as there seems to be an imminent arrival of one of the king's liege men, some lord or other who journeys to his lands."
     
    Acha sighed, just like her father to give orders before a body can pull itself together in the morning. Since her mother had died ten summers ago she had the running of the household, some days she felt like staying in bed late for an extra bit of rest but her father was a hard taskmaster and rarely did she awaken from bed but there was some order of his awaiting her, whether it was welcoming guests or seeing to some unpleasant household task that he though beneath his notice. He rose at dawn and usually spent the day attending to his many concerns or training with his knights.   
    She sighed as she dressed and prepared for the day, Ailred brushed her long raven tresses as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was nineteen summers old; almost too old to wed. Her father would have to find her a husband soon. It wasn't that she hadn't received many offers for her hand, but that something in her cried out for something more... some nameless, unfathomable thing that her heart yearned for that no man she had ever met could give.
   Her best candidate for a husband was Cynefrid, her father's favored knight. He was lean and strong with beautiful green eyes, eyes that had also shown their interests in her. He at least was not only interested in her dowry and her physical beauty, he was kind and generous with deep affection for her. That was something at least and she was getting dangerously close to spinsterhood she had to marry soon.
     She descended the stairs to the hall below. The rushes would have to be changed, she observed, and the tapestries taken out and beaten free of dust. She gave the orders and went to find her father to confer with him about the importance and number of the expected visitors so she would know how much and what to prepare, the cook would have to be consulted and meals planned. She would have to check how much ale and wine they had stored.
   Visiting lords and their vassals often depleted a keep's stores, at an alarming rate.

   She walked around to the back of the castle to the training yard where the knights spent their days. Acha rounded the corner of the keep tower and ran smack into the flank of Coenwalh. She beheld the irate face of the centaur, and smiled warily.
   "My apologies Coenwalh, I was lost in thought, have you seen my father this morn?"
"Aye he's there, talking with Cynefrid, he's in a foul mood, mind, It appears the king has sent orders that he succors some Norman lord for a fortnight, he travels on his way to some lands rewarded by the king, no doubt lands he won conquering another English lord, tis' galling, it is. He's taking precautions against a surprise attack, the Normans are not to be trusted and neither is our bastard, king."

"Hush, Coenwalh, tis' treasonous talk and tis' said the king has ears everywhere, and well you know he has no love for my father who openly expresses his disdain for the Normans, tis the reason why father is very rarely summoned to court, he was a flagrant supporter of Harold."

  "He fears a betrayal by the king and he's wise to be cautious, the British Isles are being swiftly overrun by the Norman scourge."
Acha lived with the knowledge each day; they lived in fear of constant attack. William was ruthless in his ambition and bore no love for the English, nor, it was secretly whispered, for England.
 
   She watched as Coenwalh rejoined the knights, he was a perfect specimen of his breed. Sinewy, strong and in his prime, he chose to live among humans, unusual for his kind. No one knew the reason for it and no one dared ask, he was surly and bad tempered and the only one who could reach him was Acha. She had befriended the young centaur since he strolled out of the forest and asked to be welcomed into the keep and trained as a knight. He was an oddity, but he had intrigued her father who had taken him in and here he remained ever since.
Hilda, the healer, believed in the old ways, she said that Coenwalh was sent here by the Fae and that soon his purpose would be revealed. She went to join her father,