Morag brought a light supper of bread and cheese, then settled back in with some embroidery while Lila continued working on the hauberk. Some of the pages had left to run errands for their masters, but the rest were gathered at Lila’s feet, listening to her tales of her homeland. She had to alter them a bit, avoid any mentions of modern technology, so she was left recounting her days running with her brothers’ SCA clan.

“So this one time, an entire line of Trojans thought they were super-special, and they had a wall of tower shields. The Hessians let fly a volley of arrows, so of course the Trojans covered their heads. And what did our army do? We marched right over the top of them, shields and all – convenient human bridge, they were.”

“Lady Lila,” one page began, but before he could say more, all of the boys scrambled to their feet and bowed hastily. Lila looked up, confused, and saw Arthur in the doorway. She made to rise as well, but he shook his head.

“Ah,” he said, “I wondered where my armor was.”