“Uh, blocks are designed to stop a strike and parries are designed to pass them by you.” I said.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Moira replied. “And why would you choose one over the other?”
“Well, when you blocked my strikes, the sword seems to rebound a little in my hand and when you parry my strikes I seem to follow the momentum of the strike out of position. So… you block when you want to sort of shock them before you counterstrike and you parry when you want them out of position when you counterstrike?”
“Essentially yes. As you get better, you will learn counterstrikes for both techniques. When you get really good, you will be able to direct your opponent’s sword where you want it, creating openings almost at will. I can teach you the standard counterstrikes, but you will need to wait until you are better and Devlin is healed to start learning the more advanced techniques like setting up your opponents.” Said Moira.
“So, and I mean no offense here, he’s a better swordsman than you?” I asked.
“Hah!” She replied. “Kid, he is as better a swordsman than me as I am a better archer than you. I’m not embarrassed to admit it either. He spent years learning the ways of the sword in his former life. He has taught sword fighting for many years. The sword in his hands is an extension of his arm. I’m teaching you not to wield a sword like a farming implement, he will teach you how to fight with it.”
“Oh…” I said. “Sounds impressive.”
“It is. I’m happy to be the best archer here, but he is the best swordsman. Fortunately, we need archers more than swordsman. It’s easier to hunt with a bow, and you only use swords in highway robbery when things go horribly wrong.”
“Oh, ok.” I said.
It made perfect sense. From what I had heard, the general idea was to block the road, fire a couple of arrows from cover in the woods to show the people being robbed they were covered and everyone just hands over their stuff and goes about their day. You would only need to use a sword if you were the guy manning the barricade and someone pulled a weapon on you.
“Well, kid, that is enough for the day.” Said Moira. “This evening, before archery practice, I want you to run through all the basic strikes, blocks and parries I have shown you today using your actual sword. It is time to get used to its weight, reach and balance. Also, pay attention to your stance and footwork. You still have sloppy footwork and that could get you killed.”
“OK.”
“And now put away the swords and go do some real work. We need to start taking the harvest in before the first frost comes.”
And with that, the rest of my day passed much like all my days since I had come to be the youngest member of this small clan of highwaymen. Some of the work took more time than I expected due to my shoulders being a little stiff from the sword practice. But all in all, it was an enjoyable day. I was quite glad for having the heavy clothes as the wind picked up in the evening. Likely there would not be too many more days before we got our first frost.
By the time I finished my chores and had brought in the last of the harvest, it was getting dark and legitimately cold. My guess was that we brought the last of the harvest in at the right time. Still, I had some work to do before I could go in and have some dinner. And I knew someone, or something, that would not let me forget it.
You done lollygagging around you hayseed?
This was my greeting as I came inside to fetch my sword for practice.
‘Cause if you are done, maybe you could get around to knocking the dust off me and swing me around.
As I headed back to the practice field the wind was blowing, the leaves were coming off the trees, and generally, fall was rapidly descending into winter. You could actually feel the temperature dropping. Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time, I had a bit of a headache brewing.
You sure you want to be out here? It’s really cold and my head’s pounding.
Man up kitten, you’re not getting out of this this time. You’re going to wield me and you’re going to like it.
OK, fine, no time like the present.
So I drew my sword forth and started by practicing my stances. Immediately I could feel the difference in balance between my sword and the practice weapons.
Why the hesitation? Go attack that practice dummy! Cut it in half!
I’m pretty sure that I’m just supposed to review the basics right now.
Oh, come on! You can practice swings in the air or into a dummy. What’s the difference?
Moira told me to do the former and not the latter?
Did you mean that to end in a question? Because I just hear a chicken clucking.
That doesn’t even make sense.
Through the ongoing dialogue in my head, I ran through my stances, blocks, parries, strikes and the like. It was going fine, except that the constant needling from the sword was making my headache worse.
Is that all you have pansy? A few strokes and posing? You gonna grow a pair tonight and work on that practice dummy?
I told you, Moira didn’t tell me to hit the dummy, just practice my basics.
She also didn’t tell you to scratch your ass either, but you do that fairly regularly.
You be quiet and let me concentrate. You’re not helping my headache at all.
I don’t know… You going to man up and attack that dummy?
You know what, fine! Let’s go over to the dummy. Let’s get in trouble with Moira. Let’s wear out our welcome.
OOOoooOOOooohhh! Aren’t we touchy?
It was not my proudest moment. But between the headache and the sword’s needling I gave in and went over to the dummy. It was a straw dummy made of a post and wrapped with straw and rope to resemble a person. It was there so you could practice your distance and accuracy.
Ahhhh… That’s more like it.
I started out with checking my stance, lining up a basic overhand strike starting from a high guard. My first few swings were tentative. Just getting my distance and feeling what it was like to hit resistance with my strokes. On my first few strokes I realized that I had been holding my sword too loosely. When I finally connected with the dummy, the sword wanted to hop out of my hand. I adjusted my grip and had a few more practice swings.
So, when are you going to actually swing me in earnest? Because this pussyfooting around is nice and all, it’s alleviated my boredom, but you’re hardly testing your limits here kid.
Really?! You still aren’t happy? FINE! Here’s a harder one!
My headache had continued to grow throughout this time. The needling, the cold, the wind, it was all bothering me and making it worse. I admit, I gave in and started swinging away at the dummy. Hard.
Hell yes! This is how I was meant to be swung. With emotion! With power! HIT THAT THING HARDER! DO IT NOW PANSY!
The wind was really blowing at this point. It felt almost like it was coming at me from all directions. Worse, it was even colder than I had expected. Also my head was pounding. Really, it would have been wise to quit for the day. But I didn’t.
GOD DAMMIT WILL YOU EVER SHUT UP!
And with that communication to the sword, I let the dummy have it. I struck with anger, I struck with full force, I struck with all my frustrations. Worse, I screwed up my eyes and didn’t look where I was swinging.
BAM!
It felt like I completely missed the target and swung through into the ground. The sword meeting no resistance left my grip and struck itself halfway to the hilt in the ground. I fell over and rolled into a seating position. My headache forgotten, the cold forgotten, my anger and frustration forgotten. I looked up and could not believe what I was looking at.
The practice dummy had been cut from its left shoulder to near the bottom of the stump holding it up. Just a clean slice strait through the rope, straw and foot thick hardwood stump.
Worse, the straw was smoldering and I couldn’t see where the top ended up.
Now THAT’S more like it kid! Now pull me from the earth and finish it off!
No, I think we are done for now.
And I was. I got up and looked at the area. The sword was embedded in the earth, the dummy was ruined, and the top half was smoldering twenty feet away near the archery targets.
Shit… I’m going to be in trouble for this.
Bah! It’s a sword dummy. It’s supposed to get cut up.
Not like this though. This isn’t normal wear and tear.
You worry too much.
I’m going to have to tell someone I ruined the practice dummy.
True, but the sooner you do, the sooner we get a new one to cut up!
I cleaned up the area, put the top half of the dummy with the bottom half and made sure all the smoldering embers were out. Then I headed back to the longhouse.
As I walked in, I skirted the kitchen area and put my sword away in my room. Really I was just stalling, just like I was when I was cleaning up the practice area. But when everything was in its place, and I had no more excuses, I walked back into the kitchen area.
In the kitchen area Sapphire, Devlin and Ross were sitting around one of the tables and drinking a few pints before dinner. Moira had not yet come back.
“Tyr! Why the long face?” Asked Devlin as I shuffled my way reluctantly over.
“Um… Well… Um…” I stammered.
“Speak up lad! I can’t hear you.” Devlin responded.
“I may have… broken… the practice dummy…” I told him.
“HAH! I doubt it kid. That dummy is made of pretty stern stuff.” Devlin joked.
“Uh… Yeah… Even so… It’s broken.” I said feeling very embarrassed.
“You serious kid? Well, I’m in for a laugh. Sapphire, hand me my cane and let’s go see the damage.” Devlin said.
With that we all four of us headed out to the practice field.
“Wow it’s cold,” Devlin said.
Devlin was taking this better than I had thought. Ross and Sapphire weren’t speaking though. They both walked over to the dummy, now just a post with a large cut through it, and looked at it.
“You said you did this?” Ross asked quizzically.
“This looks more like a lightning strike…” Sapphire said.
“I’ve seen what lightning does to trees when they’ve been hit. It does tend to destroy them.” Devlin said.
“Yes… Lightning…” Ross said.
“Look here, the dummy has some charred bits on it. Definitely lightning.” Sapphire said.
“Wow, kid, you’re lucky to be alive having been that near a lightning strike,” Devlin said. “No wonder you looked so odd when you came in. Your hair was practically standing on end. We should get you some food and have Ross look you over after dinner to make sure you’re ok.”
“That… Sounds like a good idea actually,” Ross said as he finished looking over the dummy. He seemed especially intrigued by the diagonal cut through the post.
So, with that out of the way, we headed back inside. I was so relieved that they weren’t angry I had not really been focusing on what they said. I also decided not to argue with them about the lightning thing. After all, what did I know? It was getting windy and cold out. Maybe it was lightning.
Dinner passed much the way it normally did. Devlin, Sapphire and Moira, who had come in while we were outside, were all sitting around joking, drinking mead and beer and generally enjoying themselves.
“So then the kid here comes in all disoriented saying he had broken the training dummy.” Devlin said to Moira. “Turns out he had been out there practicing and the bloody thing had been hit by lightning! He’s made of sterner stuff than we thought eh?”
“Really?! Lightning? You’re lucky to be alive, kid.” Moira said with astonishment.
The dinner conversation went on in this vein for quite some time. Meanwhile I was working on my second plate of food. All that practicing had made me quite hungry. But then, at fifteen, I was still a growing boy.
After dinner Ross followed me back to my room to make sure I wasn’t still rattled or hurt from the supposed lightning strike. As he came in, he closed the door behind him and gave me a long appraising look.
“Sit down kid, we have some things we need to talk about,” he said.
“Uh… So are you not going to give me a medical exam?” I asked.
“Nope. We both know you’re fine. I’m more concerned with how that dummy got destroyed.”
“Devlin thinks it was a lightning strike…”
“We both know that wasn’t a lightning strike kid,” Ross said. “Hell, even as you came in you said that you had broken it. Also, lightning doesn’t make a clean cut through wood. It tends to shatter it or rend it apart.”
“I… See…” I said.
“So let me ask you something. Did you have a headache when you were out swinging that sword around?”
“Yes… How did you know?…” I asked a little dumbfounded.
“Remember when we first met and I asked you then about your past?”
“Uh, yes…”
“I asked you if you were prone to headaches and you said ‘yes’,” he said. “I think I am starting to get a better understanding of what brought you here than even you do yourself.”
“Oh… Wait what?” I asked, still dumbfounded.
“I’m guessing you have been prone to headaches for most of your life. That they have been generally getting worse as you have gotten older and that, when they get really bad, bad things tend to happen.”
See, I told you he was not to be trusted. Now he has you trapped in your little room and he is asking some pretty ominous questions. But OH NO! You didn’t listen. Now we’re in trouble.
NOT NOW!
“Uh, I guess so.” I said noncommittally.
“I thought as much. Kid, do you even know why the Inquisition was after you?” He asked.
“Uh… no?”
“I think it’s because they suspected you had the talent for magic.”
“Wait, what?”
“Kid, the Inquisition plays a lot of roles. They are church policeman, they are demon hunters, and they are, above all else, wizard and witch hunters. They go all over the land, or at least they used to, and look for people with magical talent.”
“Why would they do this?” I asked.
“What do you know of the history of Pandanu?”
“Not much really. Just that the church had some sort of big war which established the empire a few hundred years ago.”
“Well, that’s about the gist of it, but you missed the most important parts of the story. Let me fill in the details for you. You might as well take a seat, because this will take a few minutes,” said Ross.
“OK.” I said, finding a seat on my bed.
There wasn’t much furniture in my room. Just my bed, a stool a wardrobe for my clothes and a chair in the corner that I used as a place to prop up my sword. Since I had taken the bed, Ross took a seat on the chair and we made ourselves comfortable.
Oh sure, have the ominous guy who knows far too much about us sit next to me… I see how it is.
Shut up! I’m trying to listen to the story.
“Well, I might as well start from the beginning,” said Ross. “We don’t know much about this land from the time before the first pilgrims of the church sailed here 500 or so years ago. What we do know is that the pilgrims were sailing north from the southern continents due to religious persecution. They eventually found a likely landing point at what we now call Neucester, a small farming village located on the central western coast. Over the years the pilgrims basically over ran the town and started settling in both Tannerton and Dunesburg, which are towns to the North and south of Neucester. As these towns filled and expanded with the newly arrived pilgrims. The church became more and more the center of town and the center of daily life. This did not sit well with the de facto rulers of the land during this time.”
“Wait, someone ruled this land before the church?”
“Yes, it isn’t much talked abo
ut as the church likes people to believe that they have always ruled here. But the reality is that they were not always native to this land. And the natives at the time all paid tribute to local lords.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense. You always need some sort of central authority.” I said.
“Exactly. What is even less well known than that is that these lords were actually powerful wizards and witches. They tended to leave the villages and towns alone, so long as the towns provided tithes of food or whatever else the mages needed. Details get a little sketchy because the church long ago suppressed most of the books and knowledge from before the time they arrived. But in their own secret libraries, the true histories still exist.”
01 - The Price of Talent Page 9
