Her familiar’s cool gaze cautioned her, but she flashed a tight smile of reassurance, painful as it was to do so. She had sworn, it seemed, to say nothing that would alert those around her as to the true nature of the horrible crimes she was now sickeningly certain that Mord and his cohorts had been involved in. Somehow they were responsible for the most recent tragedy that the school had been forced to endure, and she was certain that Lady Vaila and even little Louise had somehow fallen prey to their machinations. Thank the gods those two were safe, at least.
The key point being, she was oathbound to give away nothing as to the true nature of his crimes. Nothing said she could not defame him with lies. She sighed, giving her instructor a conciliatory nod.
“What I am saying is not precisely the truth,” she hedged, “and I will not break your trust by claiming otherwise. But it is close enough to the truth that it gives you a sense of the trap that was sprung, and I too foolish to see it.”
Eloquin’s lips pressed into a disapproving line, no doubt displeased to be promised a less than entirely accurate report, though he gave the tightest of nods. “Speak, then.”
Jess nodded, doing her best not to his and flinch as Sir Jevons’ annoying silver strands kept trying to bind flesh that wanted as little to do with his magics as possible. “And quit fighting the healer, Jess.”
Jess grimaced. “Sorry, sir. I really can’t help it. My body just doesn’t like his magics.”
“I say!" Sir Jevons huffed, both amused and offended. "Tell your body to cooperate, dear Jess, unless you wish your perfect smile to be marred by two broken teeth. Fortunately, the cracks to your jaw were merely hairline, though if didn't know better I would say your jaw had been shattered and that healing magics have already been applied to that area. At least I was able to straighten your nose with what I must say is near perfect symmetry, though you shall have to wear the bone splint and bandage for a few weeks, my dear, and I absolutely forbid you engaging in any more combat until you are fully healed.” He then turned to Lord Eloquin. “And that I shall insist, sir, as is my right as her healer.”
Eloquin gave a cool nod. “Lest our nation finds itself suddenly at war, I too have every intention of suspending this hellion from further training until she is both healed and I know that she has no longer left herself so bloody open to that vile little maggot’s machinations.” His eyes crackled as he turned the full force of his focus upon a suddenly shaken Jess. “Report, Calenbry!”
“Yes, commander.” Jess swallowed, putting her swirling thoughts in order. “Imagine, if you will, your most hated enemy who has done everything he could do shame and humiliate you since day one at the school. A man who had no qualms about deliberately breaking your leg during year one opening trials in order to claim the match, to make sure you were no threat to him in any further contests that day, and to punish you for daring to fight as a girl. Imagine if ever since that day he and his friends have taunted and harassed you for refusing to accept the role of frightened waif in a dress, yet has never left you a single opening to force a challenge!”
Lord Eloquin nodded. “I know well about that first match, Jess. And I know damn well I’ve taught you half a dozen ways to make sure you are never in that position again, as well as how to counter and trip up a man attempting to thunderstrike you while you are prone, as long as you still have your blade. The boy got the best of you, rubbed your face in it, and refused to give you a chance to redeem yourself in your own eyes. We all know this already. None of that explains why you let him use you as a straw dummy for near a quarter of an hour!”
Jess grimaced. "He saw something about me, last year." She looked down, ashamed. "I never told you this, but sometime back, he had a fourth member in his little coterie, besides Vaki de Slaktare and Erno de Vilde. His name was Billy. I never bothered to learn his surname. Anyway, he was attempting to wile his way into my confidences in order to betray me and my friends, and, well, I sensed it." Jess flushed in renewed embarrassment. "And I sort of lost control, sir. I scared Billy, I think. Scared him so bad he never had the courage to face me again."
Eloquin’s cold smile left Jess breathless, and she realized, somehow, that he already knew. “Indeed, Jess. You terrified him. He fled the school, making some rather absurd claims as to your nature while doing so.” Eloquin shook his head. “I was not happy with your loss of control that day, but he wasn’t much of a loss to the school, to be quite frank. And if you will recall, your class had quite a number of training sessions focused upon the importance of self-control after that incident, sessions in which you and your shieldbrother were deliberately pushed to your limits. I thought you would have put two and two together.”
Jess grimaced. "Yes, well, I sort of pushed all thoughts of Billy out of mind, after that. I was more than a bit ashamed of myself, for how close I had come to losing it."
“How close you came to embracing your true nature and slaughtering anyone who dared to cross you, my mistress.” Twilight's grin was fierce, and Jess flushed under her familiar’s gaze.
“Anyway, I had done my best to forget about that ugly incident with Billy, but ever since that day, for some reason, Mord’s obsession… changed.”
“He no longer wanted to humiliate her and get her kicked out of school,” Malek angrily interjected. “He became obsessed with her. Useful as he is when our daggers are blackened, once we were back at school, well, his discipline fades and you can just see it in his eyes. He wants to possess her. To consume her.” Malek dipped his head, grimacing an apology to a hotly blushing Jess. “He keeps trying to corner her, he and his friends. Anything to knock her off her guard, to leave her flustered. He takes such joy in it.” Malek flushed. “I shudder to think what might have happened if that bastard hadn't known that I was more than willing to break his neck, if he ever dared cross the line, blood-price and expulsion be damned!”
“That will be enough, Lord Sousel!” Lord Eloquin snapped. A suddenly chagrined Malek bowed his head and stepped back. Their commander turned to Jess once more. “Your shieldbrother’s loyalty does him credit. But his discipline is as lacking as your own. Now continue your report, Calenbry.”
“Malek is right, commander. Ever since Billy, Mord’s gaze had turned from contempt to avarice. I swear he looks at me like a piece of meat he wants to devour, and those girls who find him handsome and his cruel smile charming, even when their heads are clear of terror and brandy, are blind fools who have no sense of who and what he truly is!”
Eloquin sighed. “He is someone you've always loathed in the cold light of day. Yet never have you refused his blade by your side when you serve king and Crown.” Unable to meet her mentor's too-knowing gaze, Jess felt her heart pounding in her chest, wishing she could sink into the very stone tiles. “You might feel the weight of your blackened dagger, but it is clear that he never did. And that still doesn't explain why you allowed him to beat you to within an inch of your life just now, when I know damn well you are more than a match for him."
Jess sighed, and nodded. “Very well, then.” She grimaced as she forced herself to meet her commander’s icy gaze. “You may think me a coward or a fool, but I’ve never told my family any of this. Far from protecting me, if they knew just how badly Mord had injured me that first day, if they knew how tiresome he has been in the years since, I fear that my mother would have only used it as an excuse to pull me out of Highrock. Crushing my dreams with a stroke of her quill, declaring life at Highrock too dangerous before sentencing me back home, where she could spend her days delighting in the opportunity to mold me into the spitting image of my sister; focused on dresses, cute boys, political maneuvering, and little else.” Jess shivered at such a fate, surprised to see her instructor actually flashing her a small smile of sympathy.
“You will not hear me disputing the validity of your concerns, Jessica. Well do I know how clever and persistent your mother can be in the political arena. More than one opponent has rued your parents' union. She is as competent at Co
urt maneuverings as your father was leading troops in the war against Velheim. Suffice to say, I do not think your concerns are unfounded."
Jess flashed her favorite instructor a grateful smile. “So you see, I thought of Mord’s petty insults as a test of sorts. If I kept my cool and ignored, challenged, or avoided him and showed no other reaction, I could keep my independence and stay. If I ever broke and went crying to my parents, I would be surrendering to him, in a sense. As I would lose that which I love most in the world.”
“And what would that be, Lady Jess?” Sir Jevons gently asked, even as he placed padding laced with strong spirits upon Jessica’s various cuts and abrasions after cleaning them most thoroughly, she dressed in little more than an undertunic, yet no more embarrassed than any soldier would be before her battle companions.
Jess flashed a smile at Eloquin. “To train under the best, sir. To become the best warrior and commander I can hope to be. To earn my place in the world without being some man’s plaything. To be respected upon my own merits, not simply living life as some nobleman’s prize.”
Malek flashed a fierce grin of approval. “That’s my Jess.”
Eloquin nodded. “A worthy goal. And I would expect no less from one of my prize students. Now continue with your account.”
“Yes, commander. In any event, there was an unforeseen consequence of my so drastically understating how greatly I dislike Mord de Plaga. For his father approached mine on his son’s behalf, asking for my hand.”
Malek hissed. “Bloody hells!”
Eloquin gave a thoughtful nod. “I see.”
Jess grimaced. “Of course, I made it absolutely clear that I had no intentions of marrying that mocking jackanapes! But I dare not state precisely how... complicated my relationship with that man truly is, lest my mother immediately move to have a carriage come for me in order to pack me up and send me off to some damned finishing school.”
Carefully Jess formulated her words, hoping Eloquin would understand the truth behind the necessary deception. “Now imagine if Mord starts gloating the very moment I had accepted his challenge and our steel was laid bare. Imagine if he then told me that I was actually bound by familial oath to never strike him in anger while at the College, even if he frustrates me. What if, as his future prospective wife, my father had charged him to communicate to me that I must know my place without even telling me he had made oaths on my behalf? And that furthermore, if I did not adhere to those oaths of deference and respect I had never even been party to, I would shame my father, my family, and be sent packing home in disgrace.”
She felt her face flush with hot fury, for her story in some ways awoke the fierce humiliation she felt at being bound to brutally unfair oaths. “And in knowing that, knowing that his role was to inform me of my ‘place’, he instead uses that to trap me, only informing me that I was forsworn from striking him when I had already accepted a duel giving him free reign in hitting me. And he, of course, was under no such oath from his father. For even as I’m sure my father wouldn’t dream of him being so vile as to strike his supposed fiancé, his family would put Malek under no such stricture, thinking it quite fine for a man to beat his woman about so she ‘knows her place.’”
“Bloody bastard!” Malek hissed, and Jess was a bit awed to see Malek trembling, his hot gaze filled with a madman’s fury. “I don't care how useful a dagger he is, I'm pounding that bastard to a broken pulp! Only because he once fought by our side will I resist slicing his gods damned throat!”
“You will do no such thing, Malek. You are oathbound as well!” Jess snapped, even before Eloquin could put her shieldbrother in his place.
“Stupid Hound,” Twilight sighed, even as he curled up next to Jessica, being careful not to put any weight on her injuries. “He should know better than to make such declarations aloud, even if he weren’t oathbound.”
Offhandedly, Jess began to stroke her purring familiar, taking comfort in his presence, not caring how it looked to those unable to see him.
Eloquin gazed at Jess and Malek both before speaking. “So. Whatever the nature of this vow, it binds you both. And I will assume that it really did give Mord carte blanche to strike you like a madman, and leave you powerless to counter.” He flashed a humorless grin. “We shall pretend it really is no more than a father’s overly sweeping vow on behalf of his daughter, and we shall ignore the fact that I know damn well that your father, brilliant tactician that he is, would never give another such power over you, let alone be able to speak for your shieldbrother.”
Jess felt her heart start to race, frozen under the piercing gaze of her master at arms, barely registering her familiar's less than gentle nip, making it clear that, freeze as she must, she was not to utter a word. She tried desperately to swallow, but her throat was as dry as bone.
“No, Jess. You don’t have to say anything else on the matter. I am inferring that you are also bound not to even state the true wording of your oath, whatever it is. But answer me this: is your family truly considering Mord de Plaga as a match for you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, blinking back furious tears, humiliated to find herself on the verge of crying like any fragile handmaiden who had never worn a man’s fighting doublet, who had never known the exhilaration of swinging a sword in her own defense. Perilously close to sobbing like a girl overwhelmed by the world.
“This whole matter is an outrage!” Sir Jevons declared, sputtering in a tizzy that Jess found touching from the gentle healer. “It violates the very spirit of that most sacred of knightly oaths. We must alert the dean and Knight Commander Hyve at once!”
Jess gazed at the man in sudden panic, even as Commander Eloquin grimly shook his head. “Rest easy, Jevons. Steps will be taken. Yet, correct me if I’m wrong, Jess, but it sounds to me like you are somehow bound not to even embarrass him in public.”
Jess grimaced. “Something like that. I am sorry, Lord Eloquin, but there is much I cannot say, and I find to my horror that I am trapped in oaths I barely recall.”
“Careful, Jess.” Her familiar's frigid tone washed over Jess like a splash of icy water, chilling her to silence. “You dare not say too much. Do not even give them cause to suspect the truth.”
Yet her commander, to Jessica’s utter relief, did no more than give a slow nod of his head, even as the healer gave a frustrated sigh.
“My professional advice, dear Lady Jessica, is that you keep away from this Mord de Plaga at all costs,” Sir Jevons advised. “And oaths aside, I shall advise the dean that you two are not to be allowed near each other. Besides that? I will counsel at least a week of bed rest and no more than light walking to keep your blood flowing, and I shall examine you again then. Oh, and Jess? Please, try to keep from binding yourself to unfortunate oaths. Any vow that would leave a woman defenseless at a man’s hands should have no weight in court, I would say.”
Jess chuckled softly. “If only life were that easy, Sir Jevons. And thank you, sir, for taking the time to heal me with the tournament going on and all.”
The healer shook his head in bemusement. “As if the tournament’s main events were not on hold with Lord Eloquin here with us now. Fear not, child, ‘tis only the dueling competitions which are in play at the moment, and such injuries as might occur are generally far less onerous than that which occurs in the general melee. And to be perfectly honest, my dear Jessica, all the college’s healers are in attendance. Ostensibly to come at call if needed, but all know they are really there to enjoy the competitions and bet some coppers on the outcomes, same as everyone else.”
Jess smiled. "I hope I have not hindered you from making a few well-deserved coppers yourself, Sir Jevons.
The gentle healer chuckled. “No worries, dear Jess. I shall leave you in the good hands of your friend and commander, and I shall be checking on you in the days ahead, young woman, so no more dueling, all right?”
Jess smiled. “Not for the next few days at least, I promise!”
The master healer
smiled, gave a respectful nod of his head that Eloquin returned, and made his way out of the healer’s tent, leaving Jess feeling vulnerable under the measuring gaze of her commander, even as Malek gently squeezed her shoulders in support.
“I assume no clause in your oath prohibits me from thinking Mord a very poor choice as a future spouse?”
Jess smiled. “Not at all, master Eloquin. It’s a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.”
“Excellent. I will leave you to your shieldbrother’s care. And Jess? I meant what I said. You are to accept no more challenges from Mord de Plaga. Do you understand me, Jessica de Calenbry?”
Jess felt herself wilt under her instructor's fierce gaze. "Yes, Lord Eloquin. I won't accept any further duels, lest it is in self-defense, or someone's safety is at stake."
Eloquin gave a grim nod. “Good. And if you spot him approaching you in the halls or cafeteria, you are to make your way to the nearest professor or guardsman. Any third party that can bear witness. If he so much as touches you, I shall pull every string at my command to see him summarily expelled from this college. And you are not to approach him, Jess. We will give him no pretext to claim that you had forced his hand. Am I understood?”
Jess nodded as they made their way out of the healer’s tent, and Jess was rendered speechless, both utterly embarrassed and touched by the sight of the entire body of commanders in training, her fellow protégés under General Eloquin, all waiting silently as she exited.
Erica was the first to approach, her soft green eyes sparkling with warmth and unshed tears as she gave Jess the gentlest of hugs. She, like Jess, had fought hard to escape the ties of family expectations, having trained with a fierce intensity just to be accepted as one of Eloquin's students. Not quite as tall or broad-shouldered as Jess, her swordsmanship barely made the cut for a Squire. Nevertheless, she was an excellent tactician, and would no doubt inspire unswerving loyalty in her future troops. "Today we are fighting for you, Jess," she softly said, and Jess blinked back a fresh tear as the sprightly young woman tilted up to kiss her cheek.
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