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.
Sasha was calling back to him. “Come on, Keither. You’re in charge, not her. Kick her sides and she’ll go.”
No, she wouldn’t go. They had been going through this exercise all day-he kicked, Pixie ate. And that name! What were people going to think of him when they found out his horse’s name was Pixie? Sasha was heading over now. She looked calm and he knew she was patient, but he still knew this must be driving her nuts.
She got off Murray. “Here Keither, ride Murray the rest of the day. Pixie just needs to be trained, that’s all.”
He got off and remounted Murray, who seemed to be much larger. Once again, the horse didn’t seem to want to respond to him. Sasha got on Pixie and to his amazement, she turned Pixie and started toward the others, clucking just like he had done but this time the horse responded. He grabbed on hard to the saddle as Murray started after Sasha. Clearly, Pixie was not the one in need of training.
Chapter Eleven
“It always amazes me that people believe only that which they want to, no matter how absurd. Of course, that being said, people tend to be easy to lead for the same reason, and provided their leader is just, even the truly wicked amongst us can be made into good people.”
They made camp right outside of the town of Salkay. Kovos couldn’t see it, but it was there just over the hill. He could hear the sound of the Kayloose River, one of the largest rivers in the area and the basis for Salkay’s rapid growth. Most towns and villages were built near a body of water, be it a river, stream, or lake. This was the case for Salkay. From what he understood, there were mills in Salkay, and mills meant money.
It was cool this morning and he could see his breath when he got out of the tent. He appeared to be the only one up except for Arkin at the edge of camp, looking not toward the town but back up the road where they’d come, sitting on his heels and not moving a muscle. This must have been the Jeesie or Jezeer or whatever it was called. Kovos didn’t know and frankly he didn’t care. All that stuff was fine for Arkin but not for him.
He began to build a fire. He loved the mornings when he was camping, or at least he loved them when he was sitting at a fire eating. He felt a hand on his shoulder. It was small and soft. His heart skipped a beat. Emma?
