Approximately 41 pagesIn this modern-day retelling of Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, a boyhood encounter with an odd girl who lives in a tower alters the course of Ryan’s destiny. No Loyal Knight and True is also included in Belle Noir: Tales of Love and Magic.Excerpt:Ryan walked to the girl, who was underneath one of the apple trees that surrounded them, and stood facing her. Questions were trying to burst forth from him, but he held his tongue. Smiling slightly, she reached and plucked a green apple from a bough hanging low. She held it between them with one hand while from her trousers she pulled out a small knife. The sweet scent of the fruit stoked his hunger. Cutting the apple in two, the girl offered him one piece, which Ryan took. He saw that in its white heart, one blood-red seed was neatly cleaved, its half in the piece she held. He bit into the apple the same time she did, cool sugared juices flooding his mouth. He had never tasted anything so sweet. “Never again will you be lost in this forest. You will always find your way. Everything hidden will reveal itself to you.” He met her eyes, the color of the green apples on the boughs, the leaves in the forest, the grass and ivy, moss and fern, all the shades of verdant green in the world held in them.