* * * * *
Sasha woke up next to Legon, her head resting on his bedroll. She was amazed at how well she slept. She thought that she wouldn’t sleep deeply because she was scared, but Legon was with her and he wouldn’t let anything happen. The air felt warm, so it must have been mid morning. She crawled out of the tent to have her suspicions confirmed. The sun was high in the sky, the morning dew long since gone.
Arkin was up, or at least she thought that he was. He was sitting on his heels with his back to her. It looked like his hands were on his thighs. She didn’t want to disturb him from whatever he was doing and began to go back in the tent.
“Good morning, Sasha,” he said in a deep, relaxed voice.
“Oh, good morning Arkin. Did you sleep well?” She wanted to know what he was doing, but she had to be polite. She did owe him her life, or at least that’s how she saw it. He chuckled.
“I am meditating.”
“Oh, ok. I didn’t want to be rude or disturb you.”
“You’re not. Did you sleep well? I know Kovos and Keither did. I think the whole forest knows that,” he said, turning his head and giving her a slight smile.
She laughed. “Yes, I think they did.”
A snort from inside the tent told her that Legon was getting up as well. He popped his head out. “Morning,” he said and then looked at the sky. “Oh, sorry. I don’t think I’ve slept this late in years.”
Arkin got up and moved to his tent, returning with a sheathed blade.
“Sasha, this is for you. It’s also Elven. It belonged to Legon’s mother. It’s the faloon. Elven women carry them.”
She took it. “A what?”
“Faloon. A thin, short sword that can be worn under most skirts. The handle can be easily hidden with a bow or anything else around your waist.”
“Oh, ok. Legon, do you…”
“Good idea, Arkin. I should have taught her how to defend herself a long time ago. It was dumb of me. I just always assumed that I could defend her… sorry, Sash.”
She was a little taken aback. He was feeling guilty about what had happened yesterday, as if it was somehow his fault those bastards had tried to hurt her. She knew that he would have done anything to stop it. She saw the marks on his wrists where the rope cut into him. She could almost feel them. There was nothing that he could have done to stop it.
“It’s not your fault, Legon. There is nothing you could have done. Even if I knew how to fight, do you really think that I could have stood a chance against them?”
“That’s not the point. The point is that you have always been in a danger and I haven’t taken the time to give you the basic skills you may need to just get out of a situation. I don’t expect you to be able to fight someone, but I could have taught you how to hurt them enough so you could get away.”
Arkin broke in. “The truth is, it’s my fault as well. I trained your brother and yet I did nothing for you. Forgive me, Sasha, but going forward you will learn. In fact, I have training for both of you while we’re on our journey. We are going into situations that neither of you have faced and you need to learn what to do, and Legon, you need to learn how to use the fenrra and a few other techniques.”
“Like what?” Sasha asked.
“I will start to teach you the art of the Jezeer.”
“The what?” started Legon.
“Jezeer. In short, you will learn how to fully use your muscles, how to read people, inflect your voice and body language to gain favor with people and get them to do what you want. Sasha, you know a lot of the people skills because I have taught you them from the time you were little. Legon, you I have taught many of the physical, but you both need to learn more than either of you currently knows.”
She’d been being what? She knew that Arkin was training them, but to have him say it was a little unsettling, and in a way violating. Her thoughts were interrupted by Arkin.
“And you will learn the Mahann, which will train your mind to use logic, not emotion. Both of these we can learn in the saddle, but at night in camp we’ll go over physical training. Legon, I will work with you and in turn we will switch training Keither and Sasha. Ok?” This wasn’t much of a question but Sasha didn’t fight it. She was willing to go along if for no other reason than curiosity.
Shortly after that, Kovos and Keither woke up and they broke down camp and started off. They were hoping to make it to within a half day’s ride from the end of the road, where it split three ways. From there they would go southwest along the mountains toward Salez. This wasn’t the most direct route, but it had the least amount of towns and villages, so it was ideal for them. As the day pressed on, Arkin was teaching them different exercises to train their minds and quizzing them on hypothetical situations. It made Sasha’s head hurt, but at the same time it was nice. Kovos and Keither listened in and occasionally Keither would make a remark or answer a question. He always got the questions right, and Sasha began to wonder just how smart he was. Also, he’d been so nice to her. She knew that it must have taken a lot for him to say what he had, and she was thankful for that. He was a good guy if you could get him to talk.
* * * * *
They were riding next to the river, which made the air cool. Legon always loved the sound of a stream or river. They seemed to give him energy and yet make him relax at the same time. All the same, he would have liked it more if Arkin wasn’t drilling them. He and Sasha always seemed to just get halfway there but rarely all the way. It was like they had been given information but only part of it. This didn’t seem to bother Arkin one bit. He was rushing along, hitting them with question after question. Then he would correct something that seemed to be insignificant and move on.
He was looking forward to training tonight. He knew how to use a sword and he could use two, but the fenrra were a little shorter than regular swords, so he would have to get used to that. He was glad that Sasha was going to be learning how to fight. That way if anything ever happened to him she might be all right. The faloon looked like it could be handy too. It had a little cord that went around her waist and as it hung it moved with her legs and skirt so no one could see it. There was just the end of the handle that came up, and that could be hidden with cloth.
He could see the she was a little uncomfortable with it. Sasha had never been in a fight and never carried a weapon, much less one that had belonged to her adopted brother’s dead mother. He, on the other hand, liked that she had the blade. It seemed to fit. As the sun fell they set up camp next to a large rock that rose thirty or forty feet above them. They were able to set up camp beneath an overhang. They placed the tents close to the rock, giving them more cover from the elements and making the smoke from the fire track its way up the rock and fan out under the overhang. As soon as dinner was done, Arkin walked into camp with a bag that looked like it contained a spare tent. He started to pull out wooden staves which were finished and polished, the same kind that Legon and Kovos had learned to fight with.
He tossed two to Legon, who noticed that they were shorter than most swords but the same length as the fenrra, and handed one to Sasha and Kovos. Sasha looked a little confused, but the two men got up, understanding it was training time.
Arkin looked down at Keither. “I imagine that your ribs are bruised at the very least, so we won’t start training you for a little while. As for the rest of you,” he addressed the others, “Sasha, you will be working with Kovos, who is going to start teaching you how to fight with a sword. He’s a very good fighter and you will learn a lot from him. Legon, you’re with me. I need to start getting you used to fighting with the fenrra. We will use the wooded staves for a few nights until you get used to the length and fighting style. After that we will put guards on the real blades. Ok?” Everyone agreed, but Sasha was looking a little nervous.
* * * * *
Sasha walked to one end of camp with Kovos. She was feeling a little trepidation. Kovos was nice enough, but she’d never been in a fight before and she
was hoping she would never need to. This must have shown on her face because Kovos smiled warmly.
“Don’t worry. We’re just going to go over the basics tonight. I think that Arkin just wants you to have a general understanding, and then he will have to teach you to use that fa… feloon?”
“Faloon,” she corrected.
“Yeah, that thing. It looks like a good weapon and a great idea, but basic broadsword technique will be good for you to know. Don’t worry, you’re not going to be good at it for a long time, so if you’re not a master by the end of the week, don’t lose sleep over it.”
“Ok, I won’t worry too much then.”
Kovos nodded and placed the stave on the ground and drew his real sword, holding it in the palm of his hand and presenting her with the handle. She wasn’t expecting the weight. Somehow, when he’d been using it with so much speed and accuracy, she thought it must have been very light, but it wasn’t.
“Ok, you need to learn what everything is so that way when we’re working you’ll know what the hell I’m talking about, ok?”
“Isn’t this the blade, the handle and the pommel?” she said, pointing at different parts of the sword.
“No, that’s not what it all is. You got parts right, but that’s not just a blade,” he said, a little exasperated.
“It’s a long piece of metal that cuts things. How is that not just a blade? Don’t get me wrong, it’s very pretty . . .” she said, a little confused. Kovos looked scandalized.
“Just a blade?” He stood looking at her, mouth gaping. How was she supposed to know what everything was called? It cuts stuff, right? That was a blade to her.
“Sorry, I didn’t know there was more to it than that.”
“And pretty?” he said.
Legon broke in, “But Kovos, it is pretty. I like the flames a lot.”
Arkin joined in. “You put flames on your sword?” He was starting to smile. Sasha knew the carpenter-spy or whatever was about to lose his composure. “Like the ones you put on the staves as a kid?” Arkin started to laugh hard at that.
“Oh yeah, laugh it up, real funny. I’m a trendsetter, just you wait. In a few years everyone will have swords with flames on them, and I will be rich and famous.” Arkin was on the ground, having a hard time breathing, and it was this more than anything else that made her start to laugh. It felt good. She put her hands on her knees and could feel her eyes water. She could see Legon pointing and laughing at Kovos, who was now starting to join in. The scene must have been too much for Keither, who gave a small chuckle and then put his hand on his side with a grunt. This elicited more laughter from all of them.
“Stop making me laugh! Ouch! It hurts! It’s not funny you guys,” Keither said.
It wasn’t that funny but the stress of the last few days was finally breaking, and Sasha could feel her anxiety leave as the fit stopped. Kovos was shaking his head, telling everyone just how much he hated them all, and that they would regret making fun of the flames and went back to teaching her.
“Oh my. Ok Sash, here’s what everything is named. Just try and remember, ok? On the blade there are a few parts. This first is the tip here, it’s called the Foible. Next is the mid-blade, then the forte is the part closest to the handle. Got that?”
“Foible, mid-blade, and forte. Got it.”
He pointed to the edges. “This edge, the one your knuckles are on, is the leading edge of the blade, and the other side is the false edge. The parts on either side are the flats.”
“Ok.”
“Now this cross part here is the cross guard, then the grip and the pommel. This whole part is the handle of the blade. Got it?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Ok, good. Now we will go over how to hold the sword.”
“Ok.” For the next hour she learned how to hold the sword and the basic names of moves.
After that, Arkin brought a stop to it. She was getting into it. For some reason this stuff was interesting to her, and now she was beginning to understand a lot of the conversations she had with Legon growing up. He was always talking about “parry” this and “thrust” that, but she never really had known what he was talking about. She just smiled and nodded to be nice. She didn’t even remember hearing Arkin and Legon, who both were covered in sweat.
* * * * *
Arkin stood across from Legon. He was going to start learning better deflections so he could use his opponent’s momentum against him. The staves were perfect for this kind of training. They couldn’t take full blows without cracking, so this would force him to deflect with one sword and then strike with the other. Arkin came at him again and again, doing the same move until Legon would deflect it correctly and then he would move on to a new one. He’d been used to two-handed fighting before, but was never totally comfortable with it. You didn’t have as much power with just one hand, so someone could get an advantage with just pure strength, but he also knew that people who did know how to fight well with two swords usually won, so he would put in the time.
Arkin held one stave, and it was the same size of a standard hand and a half broad sword. He swung at his side, splitting the air with the sound of smacking wood, sending a vibration up the stave to his hand. Legon turned, catching the stave with one of his own and turning his back to it, using his body to help it make its way up and over him. This exposed Arkin’s side. As he did this he stabbed with the other hand, catching Arkin in the side. It felt awkward but was still effective.
“Good job, Legon. Now again, but less sloppy. Make it a more fluid movement.”
“Ok. Hey watch me do it on my own and tell me where I’m sticking.”
They continued until he was getting very good with the two-handed technique. He was good with one-sword combat, and in truth you didn’t use both hands a lot of the time, as you were constantly switching hands to help with endurance and to get your opponent off guard. All you needed to do was add in a sword on the other hand and for the most part you didn’t need to learn that many new moves, so it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it.
After they were done, Arkin took Sasha and him aside and began to teach them the Jezeer, which was basically learning how to master each muscle in your body. The hard part was isolating just one muscle. It seemed that you couldn’t move just one without all the others joining in. This training would be hard. The way they learned was with different poses, contorting their bodies to stretch and isolate different groups of muscles. By the end Legon knew that he wouldn’t be sore from fighting, but from the Jezeer. He also realized that he wasn’t as flexible as maybe he once was. Sasha was better at this part of this than him, but he still heard the occasional groan from her straining herself.
“That’s good. Tomorrow we will do more, and you will start to work with Sasha on basic hand-to-hand combat. Nothing major, just enough to get her out of trouble—wristlocks and things like that.”
The next day they made their final descent out of the mountains and to the split in the road. They went south, heading for the town of Salkay where they could sell the horses they didn’t need and buy supplies. The land they were in was all rolling hills with large fields and patches of trees. Closer to the mountains the forest got thick, but otherwise they were in open spaces. Within a two day’s ride they would reach the Kayloose River and the town of Salkay. Spring had taken a much firmer hold on the lowlands than it had in Salmont. The road was clear, but right off to the side the grass in the field grew up to the horses’ bellies, and there was the soft sound of birds singing and the occasional bug going by their heads. The scent of wildflowers dominated everything. They tried to figure what each cloud looked like and were having a good time. Everyone was in high spirits by lunch. They sat in the shade of a tree to eat and let the horses graze on their own. Keither seemed to be out of his element. He was terrified of bees and other insects. It was obvious that he didn’t spend much time outside.
* * * * *
Keither knew the others
were crazy. How could they possibly be enjoying themselves? “There are bugs everywhere, and the bees…” he thought to himself. There was a reason he stayed in the house all day, and this was it. What if one stung him? Could he die from it? He didn’t know, but he heard one time that someone had died from a bee sting. They stopped breathing and everything. Did these morons not know that? He kept his head down all day and he didn’t answer too many of the questions that Arkin would ask Legon and Sasha, not that it mattered anyway. He spent most of his time telling them to clear their heads and stuff like that. When there was a question he almost always got it right, even if he didn’t answer. They were easy really, all hypothetical questions, not unlike the stuff he thought about on his own all the time. He was amazed they didn’t know how to solve them. Didn’t everyone think about this stuff? Not everything was bad though. Sasha was an amazing cook. Even when she didn’t do anything to the food it was better than home.
He reared back and swatted at a black flying thing. “Whoa that was close,” he thought. His ribs hurt and he wondered how long it would take them to feel better. His face hurt too, but that was already starting to do better. He was still going to look horrible in Salkay, but not that it mattered. He looked bad anyway. He was fat and pale. People were always asking him if he was sick. When he said no they asked if he was hurt, and if that’s why he was so large. “Jerks,” he thought. “Just because I don’t spend my day pounding on metal or wood…” He liked to think of himself as the first scholar in Salmont, but now that Arkin was revealing this other side, he thought he might be number two. What was up with Arkin anyway? He sure played his part well, but it didn’t make sense to not take Legon back to the Elves where he belonged. No, there was more to this story, and the others should be asking questions but they weren’t. They trusted the man to the hilt.
They were riding again. Well the rest of them were, but Pixie was still eating. “Come on, let’s go!” He clucked his tongue. This worked for Sasha, why not for him? He tried to kick Pixie’s side. She snorted.