Twenty-Eight: Of the Affair of Honor

Thomas catches Chrétien d’Évreux’s party watering horses by a stream and, renouncing stealth, demands an honorable duel. He publicly names himself Thomas of Picardy, shaming the comte into accepting. Among the onlookers is Sir André, Thomas’s former squire, now knighted and astride Thomas’s old horse, Jibreel.

They agree to fight on foot. Thomas, under-armored but stronger and fresher, steadily batters down the comte’s defenses. Don Eduardo de Burgos, serving as reluctant marshal, improperly pauses the fight to aid the comte, allowing him to recover. A hostile axe-man edges in; André restrains him, exposing the comte’s camp’s bad faith.

Thomas disarms the interference by seizing the axe and felling the comte, angling for a decisive blow. A squire clubs Thomas from behind, but before the outcome resolves, arrows rain from the trees. André is killed by a headshot; the comte and many others fall. English and Gascon routiers, led by Janus Blount, descend to finish survivors and loot.

Blount executes a mercy killing on a mortally wounded page, forbids harming women or children, and, recognizing Thomas from the Orange bathhouse, orders Thomas spared. The brigands strip the dead, including the richly armored comte, and withdraw with horses and coin.

Thomas wakes in Delphine’s lap. She has kindled a fire, gathered Jibreel and a skittish second horse, and produced a cloth-of-gold–bound papal invitation taken from the slain comte’s effects. Delphine briefly casts a glamour with the comte’s helm, reflecting another face, and leads Thomas in a ritual at the stream to forgive his enemies as preparation for Avignon.

Thomas forgives the comte but cannot forgive his wife. The semblance fades. Delphine warns that without love and forgiveness their world will fall wholly to devils; she prophesies the emptiness of hollow penance and urges Thomas to choose mercy. Night falls as she asks him again: does he forgive her?