Lilly the Knight (Chapter 4)

Written by Taylor Lee

Genre: Adventure, Drama, and Fantasy

Audience: All ages

Chapter 4: A Canon Strike

The tunnel exhaled Lilly back into the world above just as the moon dipped low behind the treetops, and the forest lay hushed, as though it, too, held its breath for what the morning might bring. She did not linger to marvel at the stars, though a small part of her wished to. There was no time for wonder now, only to get back to her area of rest and see what tomorrow brings.

The frog paused at the tunnel's mouth, its throat pulsing once, twice, in the cool night air.

"I shall return," Lilly whispered, kneeling briefly in the moss. "I promise thee that. Just... not yet. I do not know what to do with this discovery."

It blinked at her, unhurried as ever, and slipped away into the underbrush, leaving her alone beneath the wide, star-filled sky.

She ran. Through bracken and bramble, past the crooked oak that marked the forest's edge, until the training grounds rose before her, quiet and grey in the pre-dawn dark. Rows of tents slumped like sleeping giants, and somewhere a horse shifted and stamped in its makeshift stable. Lilly slowed her steps, softened her breath, and crept between the canvas rows until she found the tent she had fled hours before. Lilly looked up at the night sky one more time, thinking it was a dream, or maybe it was fate.

She slipped inside. The other recruits lay tangled in their blankets, snoring, murmuring, dreaming whatever felt right at the moment. No one stirred. No one had noticed her absence at all.

Lilly lowered herself onto her own thin bedroll, her heart still hammering from the run, her mind still full of glowing crystals and empty halls and water clearer than any she had known. She closed her eyes, though sleep did not come easily, and she wondered, as she lay there, how she might ever find the courage to say what needed saying.

Dawn broke over Eldoria not with birdsong, but with bells. The weather was cloudy and rainy, with a slight breeze.

They rang from the highest tower of the castle, deep and urgent, rolling out over rooftops and fields alike, and every soul in the kingdom knew what that sound meant. Lilly woke with a start, along with every recruit around her, and for a moment she forgot the tunnel, forgot the frog, forgot everything but the terrible clanging that told her the enemy was near.

Outside the tent, the training grounds had become a storm of motion. Knights checked the straps of their armor with trembling hands. Archers filed toward the eastern wall, their quivers heavy upon their backs, their faces pale beneath the grey morning light. Workers hauled stone and timber to reinforce the battlements, sweat already beading upon their brows despite the chill. Somewhere, a child cried, and a mother hushed him, though her own voice shook as she did so.

"They are three days out no longer!" a messenger shouted, breathless, as he sprinted past Lilly toward the castle gates. "Necrosia's banners were sighted at the river crossing by nightfall!"

Lilly's stomach twisted. She thought of the underground kingdom, of its silent towers and sleeping gardens, and the thought struck her like a bell of her own, ringing loud and insistent within her chest: They do not need to fight. There is another way.

But who would believe her?

She imagined herself standing before King Aldwin, a frightened girl fresh from training, claiming to have found a lost kingdom beneath the earth by following a frog through the forest. She imagined Lord Aldric's stern face twisting into disbelief, or worse, fury, for having abandoned her post upon the very night before battle. She imagined the whispers that would follow her through the camp: There goes the girl who ran. There goes the deserter.

And yet, she thought of the well at the market square, its water so pure it tasted of nothing but clean stone and cold earth. She thought of the storerooms lined with grain enough to feed thousands. She thought of the homes, untouched by dust, waiting only for someone to return and light their hearths once more.

"I must tell him," she whispered to herself, gripping the strap of her practice sword until her knuckles paled. "I must find a way."

Within the castle, King Aldwin stood before a great map spread across the council table, its parchment worn soft at the corners from years of careful study. Lord Aldric stood opposite him, his arms crossed, his jaw set in the manner of a man who had not slept in far too long.

The Knights and archers entered the great hall where this meeting was happening. The King wanted to meet the new recruits. A voice echoed in the hall.

"Three kingdoms march upon us now, Your Majesty," Aldric said, his voice low but urgent. "Necrosia leads them, as ever, but Voltharin and Greywatch have joined their banners besides. We are outnumbered three to one, perhaps worse by the time all forces converge."

King Aldwin did not look up from the map. His fingers traced the winding blue line of the river, the pale stretch of the eastern fields, the small, fragile circle that marked his kingdom's walls. "There must be another way, Aldric. There is always another way, if only men would seek it."

"We have sought it, Your Majesty. For years we have sought it. Diplomacy hath failed us. Every envoy we sent returned empty-handed, or did not return at all." Aldric's voice cracked, just slightly, betraying the weight he carried. "We have four choices before us now, and none of them pleasant. We may surrender, and beg for mercy that Necrosia hath shown no sign of possessing. We may hold these walls and pray they hold long enough. We may attempt one final negotiation, though I fear it shall only delay the inevitable. Or..."

"Or?" the King pressed, finally lifting his eyes.

"Or we gamble upon some desperate plan not yet known to us," Aldric said quietly. "Though I confess, my liege, I know of none."

King Aldwin closed his eyes for a long moment, and when he opened them again, they were heavy with a sorrow that had nothing to do with fear for himself. "I did not take this crown to send children to die upon these walls, Aldric. I took it to protect them. And yet protection now seems to demand the very blood I swore never to spill without cause."

"The cause hath found you, Your Majesty, whether you sought it or not."

The King said nothing more. He only turned back to the map, as though it might yet reveal some hidden path he had overlooked, some answer folded into its careful lines that he had simply failed, until now, to see. “We will discuss later, Aldric. Now I want to meet these recruits!”

Lilly tried three times that morning to reach Aldric.

The first time, she was turned away at the outer gate by guards too harried to hear her stammering request, waving her back toward the training grounds with barely a glance.

The second time, she made it as far as the castle's inner hall, only to be swept aside by a flood of advisers rushing toward the council chamber, their arms full of scrolls and maps and grim reports she could not begin to read.

The third time, she stood outside the very door behind which she knew the King and Lord Aldric were speaking, her hand raised to knock, and then lowered again, and then raised once more, caught in a terrible tide of doubt.

What if he does not believe me?

What if Lord Aldric has me punished for my absence, and no one ever hears of the kingdom at all?

What if I am too late already?

She stood there, frozen, her heart pounding louder than the bells had rung that morning, and for a long, terrible moment, she nearly turned and fled back the way she had come.

Then she thought of the family's supper, still waiting upon their table after all these years. She thought of the weaver's cloth, half-finished, patient as stone. She thought of the water in the well, and the grain in the jars, and the towers reaching up toward a false and gentle sky.

They are waiting to be found, she reminded herself. And so is he.

She was preparing to raise her voice and make a statement in the great hall, but before she could, a rumble came beneath her feet.

A sound unlike anything Lilly had ever heard tore through the halls, a deep, thunderous crack that rattled the windows in their frames and sent dust sifting down from the rafters above. Somewhere beyond the walls, screams rose up, distant and sharp, and another crack followed the first, closer this time, closer still.

The door to the council chamber burst open, and Lord Aldric emerged pale-faced, nearly colliding with Lilly where she stood. "Necrosia's cannons have reached the eastern wall!" he shouted to the guards flooding the corridor. "They are firing upon us even now!"

“They are here days earlier; what happened?” The King shouted across the room, with a stern voice.

Aldric looked at the king from across the room as the guards started rushing in the corridor halls. “I am not quite sure, but we must do what we have to do to protect the kingdom and the great people that lie within. Here lie newly trained knights with swordsmanship and archers with precision and accuracy.”

The king nodded at him. They both knew what needed to be done. Protect at all costs! “Knights, and anyone who has been training and is ready to serve, we leave now to defend the walls of our home. We do not hesitate, and we do not question. Fight and protect the legacy of your King and your kingdom.”

Lilly gulped as the hall filled with knights, experienced and newly trained, ready, but she didn’t feel ready. Luckily, she felt like this was the time to do what needed to be said.

Smoke rolled across the eastern fields in thick, choking clouds, and through it she could make out the dark shapes of siege engines, their arms drawn back, their fire already loosed. Another cannonball struck the outer wall, and stone crumbled away in a shower of dust and rubble, and the cries of frightened soldiers rose up like a terrible chorus beneath the grey morning sky.

There was no more time for doubt, no more time for fear of what the King might think, or what Lord Aldric might say, or what punishment might follow her confession.

"I must speak with the King," Lilly yelled out loud, and this time her voice did not shake at all. "Now. Before it is too late for all of us."

Aldric looked at her and walked briskly to her. “There is no time. The King is going into hiding; we have a duty, young knight”

“I am an archer, Lord Aldric, not a Knight.” Lilly felt like she corrected the wrong person.

“Was an archer! A Knight you are, here today and tomorrow.” Aldric saw something in Lilly from the first time he met her. He smirked and commanded everyone in the great hall to go outside.

End of Chapter 4

©2026 TaylorLeeMedia LLC and its affiliates. All rights reserved.

This short story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or real events is purely coincidental.