Temple Sword

Chapter 79 Old Dreams
In the early morning, the fog on the banks of the Chalakoz River had not dissipated, and the morning dew was still on every blade of grass. Antares had already prepared the saddle for Sareche and was ready to return to Buda.While nature was still asleep and the land was enveloped in a deep silence, the man woke his wife with a kiss so they could slip out of the stone house without waking the others.

"What if I went with you now?" Agnes asked sadly, snuggling up against her husband in the yard. "I could live with my father."

"You won't be happy there," said the knight, gently cupping his lover's face in his hands. "It's impossible for me to take good care of you. Besides, you need a peaceful, quiet environment right now...for you and our baby."

"It's not fair," she sighed deeply. "You arrived yesterday afternoon and you're leaving this morning."

"You know I'll be back soon," Antar tried to reassure her, "there's too much to do in the kingdom right now..."

"If the enemy comes, who will protect me?"

The man smiled softly.

"Uncle Stephen will use his spear to pin any intruder to the wall if necessary."

"Of course, Uncle Stephen, I almost forgot..."

"And Aunt Catherine will tear them all to shreds with his sharp tongue," continued Antar. "And if that wasn't enough, Fairy Ilona will surely protect you."

But Agnes was not so easily coaxed by him, something weighed on her soul, and the knight knew that this time his wife was not only sad because of his early departure.

"Tell me, what's the matter?" he asked seriously, "something else is bothering you."

The woman hesitated for a moment, and finally said, "I had a nightmare!"

"Dream?" Antal smiled indifferently, while his wife hugged him even tighter.

"Don't be so contemptuous!" she raised her voice, "I had a terrible dream, and I have a bad premonition!"

"Agnes," he tried to reason with her, "dreams are dreams. You can't take them seriously, they poison your soul if..."

"I saw people on fire," his wife interrupted him with tears in her eyes, "they all had the cross of Christ hanging on their breasts, and there were many massacred people on the bloody battlefield, and ..."

"Stop it!" pleaded Antal, "forget about it!"

"And you're there!" cried Agnes, continuing. "You're in that pool of blood, bloody, motionless, in your old Templar suit!"

"Listen to me, my one and only love," said the knight, wiping the tears from his wife's eyes, "Your dreams can't come true, I don't belong to the Order anymore, and I don't wear that robe anymore, so there's no way I'm wearing it Killed." He tried to joke again, but this time it didn't work, "I'm the fastest and best fighter in the kingdom, no one can beat me!"

Agnes sniffed for a while, trying to calm herself down.She knew she couldn't make her husband stay, and she didn't want Antal to leave a wife weeping alone.So she wiped away her tears with her embroidered shawl and blew her nose again.Pulling herself together, she smiled at the pained knight and smoothed his cheek.

"It's going to be no problem," she said very softly, "I don't take my dreams seriously anymore, it's silly, I know, and..."

"No," Antar replied in a low voice, "it's not stupid to take dreams seriously, you also dreamed of this stone house. But nightmares should be forgotten with the first ray of dawn."

"I see," the woman nodded, "I will try my best."

"Very good." Lily Knight smiled and kissed Agnes, he thought he would miss this kiss in Buda.

He stood up, reached for his belt, and unfastened something the size of a palm from it.

"Keep it safe for me until I get back," he handed it to Agnes. "I hope I can see it again soon because it's the sweetest gift I've ever received."

The woman looks at the bag in her hand, which contains the lavender she gave him, with a red cross sewn on it.

"It's old," she pressed the bag to her chest, "worn and bloodstained..." She sniffed, "and it doesn't even smell like lavender."

"It's okay," Antar said, "that's what I like about it."

"Please take care of yourself!" Agnes kissed the back of his hand before he retracted it. "I want to see you back safe and sound, do you hear that?"

"I heard," Antal mounted his black horse, "no one can kill the chief knight of Charles Anjou!"

Agnes's eyes filled with tears again as her husband hurried away across the field.Now she didn't have to hide those tears from anyone, any more than she had to promise anyone that she would forget those nightmares.How could she forget them?Over the years, she dreamed again and again of the faceless baby, her husband's bloody cloak, and the church full of the dead.

(End of this chapter)