When the games were halted for dinner Severn did not go to the castle to eat, and he would not allow Zared to go either. Not that she wanted to, for she could not bear to hear more laughter. Severn sent one of his men to fetch food, and Severn and Zared sat alone on stools outside the tent and ate without speaking.
At one point Zared asked her brother who he thought was playing the tricks.
"I will kill whoever it is," Severn said softly, and he continued eating.
Zared knew he meant just that. Were she to tell him she was sure that the man he seemed to think so highly of, Smith, was actually a Howard, and that he was making the Peregrines look like fools, she knew that Severn would kill the man. And then what? Would Severn be executed? Would Oliver Howard retaliate by laying siege to Rogan and Liana and their child?
Zared just kept eating and said nothing.
After dinner Severn did not return to the lists. He was not due to fight again until late in the day, and he did not care to see the men he had beaten earlier. He went into the tent and stayed there.
Zared decided to go to see the other jousters. As she neared the lists she straightened her back, preparing herself to be the object of ridicule.
As she drew closer to the lists she realized that something new had taken the crowd's attention, for no one even glanced her way. All eyes were on the jousting field. She could see the people in the stands, saw the way their eyes were wide, their bodies leaning forward.
She moved through the crowd of spectators and found herself near Jamie. He barely glanced at her and showed no sign of even remembering the Peregrine humiliation of the morning.
"What is it?" she asked. The crowd was quiet, as though waiting for something.
"There," Jamie said, pointing to the far end of the field.
At the end of the field was a man on a black horse draped in black silk, wearing black-painted armor, his face covered, a black plume on top of his helmet. It was not at all rare to see black armor, and she could find nothing unusual about the man.
"That is what you gape at?" she asked.
Jamie gave her a look of contempt, as though she were too stupid to comprehend even the smallest thing.
"He is the Black Knight. No one knows who he is, and he has come to challenge all. So far he has knocked every man from his horse."
"So has my brother," Zared snapped.
Jamie snorted. "Your brother is likely to smear them in honey and the bees knock a man from his horse."
Zared put her hand up to smack the boy, but Colbrand stepped between them and smiled down at her. Zared's anger melted away as she looked up at him.
"The man is a mystery," Colbrand said.
"Who is?" Zared asked, smiling up at him. His golden hair waved back divinely from his temples and his eyes were very blue.
"The Black Knight," Jamie snapped. "Is all your family stupid as well as foolish?" he hissed across Colbrand so only Zared could hear him.
"I will make you eat those words," she said, and she started for him, but the shout of the crowd got her attention. The Black Knight was about to ride against his opponent.
His heavy horse thundered down the field, and the man kept his body tilted forward, his lance held low. When he hit the armored man on the other side of the low fence the blow was so hard that the man fairly lifted out of his saddle and hit the ground, landing with a crash of armor.
"He is good," Zared said under her breath.
"Better than anyone except Colbrand," Jamie said, but there was doubt in his voice.
"Who is he? Where does he come from? What does he want?" she asked.
"He was announced as the Marshall challenger, to fight all comers, and his identity is to be kept a secret."
"People have reasons for keeping secrets," Zared said with some bitterness. "What does he want?"
"To win the emerald," Colbrand said above their heads. "What else could he want?"
"All that the Lady Anne possesses," she snapped. "Power. The notice of the king."