The Black Knight Is Ambushed and Killed, and Tiuri Takes Up the Mission is the turning point that transfers a dangerous royal message from its intended courier to Tiuri. A formal challenge at an inn gives way to the revelation of a many-against-one attack; the dying knight then entrusts Tiuri with the letter, the route, and the ring that will identify him to a guide. His death makes the mission both an urgent obligation and the beginning of Tiuri’s solitary journey.

The Challenge at the Inn

Before the attack, the Black Knight with the White Shield was staying at an inn. He had removed his armor and helmet, but when the innkeeper brought him food, he still concealed his face behind a black silk mask that left only his eyes visible. His refusal to show his face established the secrecy surrounding him before Tiuri knew the reason for it.

Around two in the morning, another black-armored knight arrived at the inn and demanded to know whether the Black Knight with the White Shield was there. His shield was red, and his manner was threatening: he ordered the innkeeper to open the door and hurried him to wake the guest. Before the innkeeper reached the room, the White Shield Knight was already coming downstairs, fully armed, helmet on, visor lowered, and shield on his arm.

The two knights met in the common room. The Black Knight with the Red Shield removed a glove and threw it at the other’s feet. The White Shield Knight picked it up and asked when; the answer was that the encounter should take place immediately. They left together and rode into the forest without further conversation. The ritual of challenge made their departure look like a conventional duel, a reading Tiuri would later bring to the scene of the attack.

Tiuri Finds the Wounded Knight

In the forest, Tiuri saw something on the pale green grass: black, white, and red. He dismounted quickly and ran to it. The colors resolved into a damaged, dented black suit of armor, a white shield lying beside it, and blood. The Black Knight with the White Shield was gravely wounded, though still breathing.

The knight had no helmet on, but his face remained covered by the black mask. Tiuri was shaken; he nevertheless knelt beside him and tried to assess his condition and bind his wounds. The injured man moved and asked who was there. When he learned that Tiuri had come for him, his relief was immediate: he believed there might still be time, and asked whether Tiuri had brought anything.

Tiuri produced the letter. He had assumed the knight had been defeated in a duel, but the wounded man corrected him: there had been no duel. The Black Knight with the Red Shield had lured him into an ambush, where the Red Riders attacked him in numbers. Their purpose was not only to destroy the knight but also to seize or destroy the letter. They had failed to find it, and the document remained in Tiuri’s possession.

The Mission Passes to Tiuri

The letter was addressed to King Unauwen and, the knight explained, was of great importance. Since he could no longer carry it himself, he ordered Tiuri to take it in his place. He trusted the boy, judged him capable of the task, and insisted that there was no time to lose. The mission was to travel west, first through the forest and then along the Blue River to its source, where the hermit Menaures lived. Tiuri was to show Menaures the knight’s ring; the ring would identify him as a messenger sent by the knight, and Menaures would help him cross the mountains, which Tiuri could not cross alone.

The ring made the transfer concrete: Tiuri received not only the letter but also a means of proving the authority behind his journey. The knight warned him that enemies were seeking the message and that many dangers lay ahead. He therefore had to keep the mission secret, tell no one about it, and deliver the letter only to King Unauwen. The narrowness of that instruction contrasts with the wide, perilous route it opened before him.

Tiuri pledged his knightly honor, while acknowledging that he had not yet been made a knight. The Black Knight with the White Shield answered that he would become one, then asked Tiuri to remove the mask. He wanted to meet death with his visor open. Tiuri obeyed with trembling hands and saw the knight’s calm, noble face. Struck by the sight, he took the man’s hand and swore both to deliver the letter safely and to avenge his killers.

Death and Its Consequences

The knight rejected the promise of vengeance: Tiuri’s task, he told him, was to be the messenger. That distinction defined the duty being handed on. Tiuri’s grief and anger were real, but the dying man directed him away from retaliation and toward the delivery on which the message’s purpose depended.

The knight closed his eyes. His fingers moved once in Tiuri’s hand, then became still. Tiuri understood that he was dead, though he had known him only briefly; he released the hand gently, hid his face in his own hands, and prayed for the knight’s soul. The scene ends not with the recovery of the letter or the defeat of the attackers, but with a death, a promise, and a boy left to carry out the dead man’s instructions.

The episode turns apparent defeat into a transfer of responsibility. The white shield and black mask first mark an unknown knight whose identity remains hidden; after his face is uncovered, his trust gives Tiuri a role the boy had not sought. Yet the knight’s final correction prevents that inheritance from becoming a private revenge quest: the mission is to preserve and deliver the letter. His death therefore sets Tiuri on the road to King Unauwen while making secrecy, trust, and restraint part of the task he has accepted.