Chapter Eleven #2
He reached into his sweaty tunic, pulling out a matted bundle of red hair. “And I’ve never let this go.”
The expression on her face was full of delight as well as confusion. “But I have so many questions,” she said. “I dunna understand how ye came here. Why are ye—?”
A shout from the arena floor interrupted their delirious reunion and Cam turned to see Wendell waving him over.
Reality quickly returned.
“There’ll be time for that later,” he said, his eyes on Wendell. “There’s much tae discuss, Isadora, so dunna leave. Dunna leave me ever again.”
There was a plea in those words. Isadora followed him as he headed down the stairs and leapt over the waist-high wall that lined the arena floor as if afraid he was going to run away from her. She kept reaching out, trying to grasp his arm as he moved, but he was too fast.
“Are ye training, Cam?” she asked, incredulous. “Is that why ye’re here? Ye always told me ye werena a warrior.”
He grunted. “I’m still not,” he said. “But I came here tae learn. I seem tae have my arse handed tae me on a daily basis.”
Cam started to walk away from her but she stopped him. “Wait,” she said, taking a deep breath to steady herself now that the shock of their reunion was over. Clearly, something important was happening here, and with him. “Training, ye say?”
“Aye.”
“I’ve been watching ye, not knowing it was ye.” She pointed across the arena. “That man is taking advantage of yer blind side.”
“It seems as if I have more than one blind side.”
“Would ye let me give ye some advice?”
“From ye and no other.”
She cocked a well-shaped eyebrow, the natural warrior in her beginning to take hold.
“He has figured out yer weakness,” she said frankly.
“When that man strikes at ye, ye’re only looking at yer own sword.
Ye’re not thinking about what he’s doing with the rest of his body.
That’s what being a warrior is: being aware of what yer whole body is doing. That’s how ye stay alive.”
That sounded like the intelligent lass he knew, the one who used to rob unsuspecting travelers in the vale. God, he’d missed that. Looking at her now, he could still hardly believe she was real.
“Then tell me how tae beat the man who has pummeled me most of the morning.”
Her eyes glimmered. “When he comes after ye, he’s trying tae dislodge yer shield,” she said, holding up her arms to demonstrate.
“He knows ye’re only trying tae strike him with yer sword and that ye’re not paying attention tae yer shield.
The next time he comes at ye, drop tae yer knees and lift yer shield, and lift him over the top of ye with it. Like a shovel. See what I mean?”
She was lifting her left arm up and over and Cam nodded.
“Aye,” he said, making the same motion to indicate he understood. “Then what?”
She lifted her shoulders as if the answer was the easiest thing in the world.
“Then ye turn on him when he’s down and put the tip of yer sword tae his throat,” she said.
“Or ye jump on his back and put the blade across his neck. Either way, he’ll submit.
Sometimes the smartest moves are not always the strongest. Fighting is about the wits as much as the strength. ”
Cam knew that. It was how he’d survived at The Sticky Wick for so long, using his wits over his strength.
But here at The Cal, he seemed to have forgotten that.
Fighting with the sword had thrown him off and he was trying to do things that didn’t come naturally to him.
He was trying to learn something by forgetting everything else that he knew.
Her words were like a slap in the face, bring him back to his senses. Wendell was calling the recruits back together to resume their training and Cam knew that, this time, it was going to be different for him. Wendell was beating him bloody because he was letting him.
But no more.
He turned to Isadora.
“Promise ye willna leave me,” he said softly. “Promise ye’ll be here when I finish.”
The tears threatened to return to her eyes. “I promise,” she said. “I’ll never leave ye again.”
Wendell was shouting to him one last time, angrily, and Cam lifted a hand to acknowledge his trainer, but not before turning to Isadora.
“Then I’ll try tae make ye proud.”
With that, he headed back over to the group of men who were now starting to face off against one another in pairs. Wendell was standing there, waiting for him with a smirk on his face, and it infuriated him. Cam could see that the man thought he’d be an easy target yet again.
But the tables were about to turn.
Picking up his wooden sword and his shield, he could feel Isadora’s eyes upon him. He braced himself as Wendell started toward him again.
This time, he was ready.
Wendell started pounding on his shield right away, knowing that was his weak side.
But this time, it wasn’t. Cam dropped to both knees, which caught Wendell off guard.
Wendell’s momentum caused him to fall forward onto Cam’s shield and that was when Cam lifted the man up and tossed him right over his head.
Wendell went sailing up and over, and then sprawling into the dirt. Before he could recover, Cam was on him, using his body weight to pin him down, with the gladius across the front of Wendell’s neck. The message was obvious.
Within a few seconds of the fight beginning, it was over. Wendell knew it, too. He immediately released his weapon in a show of submission.
Given what happened the last time Wendell submitted, Cam wasn’t na?ve the second time. Straddling the man’s body, he planted his feet and pulled Wendell up to his knees, the wooden blade pointed at his neck.
“Now,” Cam growled. “Ye’ll give me yer word that ye’ll not try tae strike me once I’ve subdued ye. If ye turn on me again, know that from now on, it’ll not go well between us. A man must have honor, especially with those he is teaching. I want tae respect ye, Wendell, but ye must earn it.”
Wendell, his face half covered in dirt, simply lifted both hands in surrender.
“That was an excellent move,” he said, spitting grit out of his mouth.
“In fact, it has earned you some respect in my eyes. I was afraid that what we saw at The Sticky Wick had been a stroke of luck. But you’ve just proven to me that it was not.
What was it Luther called you? Lion, was it? I think we just saw you roar, Lion.”
Cam held on to him for a moment longer before quickly releasing him and stepping out of range, so he couldn’t strike out at him. But Wendell seemed to have no inclination to do so. Wiping the dirt from his face, he turned to Cam with a smile, perhaps one of approval this time.
“Come along,” he said, motioning to Cam. “I want you to show these men how you did that. It is something they can learn.”
Surprised at Wendell’s reaction, Cam watched the man walk over to the other recruits and call a halt to their mock fighting.
He motioned to Cam, who picked his shield up out of the dirt and headed in Wendell’s direction, but not before he turned to see if Isadora had kept her promise.
He still couldn’t believe she was here, so perhaps he thought he might not see her in the lists, as if she had been a dream.
But she wasn’t.
She was there, smiling at him, and Cam knew at that moment that he would never let her out of his sight again.
Ever.